more on complex data type

[9212osd at houxa.UUCP]

Since I posted the original article about the desirability
of adding the complex data type to C, I've seen some discussion
going on in this group during the last week.
To add to the contributions people have made to the group
directly, I reproduce below two interesting replies I got via
electronic mail. The second one was not cleared with the author
so I deleted sender information.

Beginning of replies-
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1.
	From mcbryan  Mon Sep 26 18:42:03 1983 remote from cmcl2
	From: cmcl2!mcbryan (Oliver McBryan)
	To: houxa!9212osd
	Subject: Re: comparing structures, complex data type
	References: <254 at houxa.UUCP>
	
	My two requests for changes to C are
	1. Add at least a compiler flag to  cc  which would use single precision
		arithmetic for floating point expressions containing no doubles.
		This would double the speed of many numerical codes on a VAX.
	
	2. Add complex data type WITH overloaded operators (the math routines for
		complex are already there, in the f77 library).
	
	I write large (>50,000 line) numerical codes entirely in C.


			()()()()_()()()()
2.
	From somewhere in Texas, a major industrial corporation:
	Subject: Re: comparing structures, complex data type
	References: <254 at houxa.UUCP>
	
	You are correct... Scientists used to FORTRAN are hard to sell on C due
	to the lack of the complex variable type.
	
	An FFT looks horrible in C, and is longer than the FORTRAN equivalent.
	I'm in geophysics, and geophysicists would be mopping floors if it
	weren't for the FFT.
	
	The power (**) operator is another complaint. But all in all, the single
	biggest complaint is that the forced double precision makes C a very
	unlikely candidate for any REAL scientific application!

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End of replies.



Hope someone is taking notes.
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