The latest release of Frink (2005-12-04) fixes some Java 1.1 compatibility problems, notably on the Sharp Zaurus. Evidently the field BigInteger.ONE wasn't...
hey all, I had a small suggestion for unit measurement: people, as in 2.5 kids per capita, 46 BBL oil per capita, etc. etc. Either that, or the larger...
... As a general case, you can, at any time, introduce any new sort of thing to be counted using the =!= operator. For example, in the data file ( see...
... Well, I for one would lobby for something like this to be included in the 'standard units' file.. Ultimately, you could tie this into census data the same...
... As with object-oriented class-based programming, perhaps it might make sense to enable an ultimate dimension of "object"? Everything is an "object", unless...
... It might be an undefined variable, too, that you're just waiting to fill in later. (Maybe containing a string, or something else?) This sort of thing is...
Well, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of having a sigil (either prefix or postfix) to tell Frink when something is a unit as opposed to a ...
... Yes, at some point, Frink will probably have a "strict" mode in which you'll have to do one or both of the following: * Declare all variables before using...
... Well, You are assuming that I'm writing Frink code to process these files. I can just as easily use perl, ruby, python, etc. to preprocess these files and...
ps - I just looked at the fortress spec, and it looks like they are making the mistake of having unicode operators.. perl6 unfortunately is doing that too, ...
... Okay, I think I see what you're saying. Pick the language right for each part of the job, that's what I say. :) ... I see nothing significantly wrong...
... Yes, Fortress is unashamedly and whole-hog on the obscure Unicode operator-and-bracket bandwagon. They've defined some ASCII alternates for their Unicode...
... By the way, you shouldn't have to do *any* modification of many files containing normal mathematical notation to turn it into Frink notation. Frink is...
Happy New Year! Since a leap second was introduced at the end of 2005, odds are that your non-atomic and possibly computer and server clocks are running one...
I've added a "Use File..." menu item to the AWT GUI for Frink. When you're in interactive calculation mode, this allows you to choose a file that will be ...
The Java Web Start file for the Swing version of Frink now *requires* a Java version of 1.5 or better. This is due to bugs in Sun's Java distributions that...
Alan, On a Mac with MacOS X "Tiger", Version 10.4.3, the "Java Preferences" application is typically at this path: ~/Applications/Utilities/Java/J2SE 5.0/Java...
Interactive calculations in Frink run from the AWT interface are now queued and run in a separate thread. This allows a few improvements: * The window can now...
I'm working toward implementing optional arguments to functions in Frink. Right now, you can only do this up to a point. The last arguments to a function may...
Ack! I just, on a vague misgiving, checked the MIThenge predictions and found that it was occurring over the last few days! I missed most of the days, but...
... Sounds pretty sensible to me. The obvious symbol to use is =, but i expect there are reasons why that would be problematic. My mind is naturally drawn to...
... I don't particularly like it, but what about making the optional arguments positional? all arguments specified === refractionAngle[altitude, temp = 283 K,...
... If it's purely positional, you could/would/should probably remove the "alpha=" and "epsilon=" parts of this, as it would be unnecessary, or possibly...
... Hmmm... I didn't even seriously consider equals, actually. It's feasible, but it has problems. (N.B.: "x = y" is an expression like any other, which can...
... Sounds to me like your opening compromise was the correct one: an argument tuple starts with positional arguments, and then moves on to named ones....
... Alan, I've been programming since 1972, in many many languages, and developed language implementations myself (eg: UMD APL, MACRO$), and one of the...
... Alan, One more thing.. I actually didn't answer your question regarding syntax. Since Frink supports assignments as an expression, even within the context...
Alan, Thought you might be interested in this link about Interval Arithmetic http://research.sun.com/minds/2004-0527/ Scott ... [Non-text portions of this...
... Thanks! I have read that before, and Bill Walster was very helpful in providing suggestions and papers for some of the trickier functions in interval...
I was recently reading Dan Simmons' ridiculously brilliant book _Olympos_ and thought I noticed an error (verified with Frink.) Dan made some clever comments...