> application I've worked on that needed it... I've heard of it being > necessary for certain (I thought largely scientific-community) > applications...
Yep, that's where it's usually used. Everywhere else, you can usually throw bits and pieces away, or account for your lack of precision. However, when testing to see if a n-digit number is prime or not, you need to be able to store n digits. > The latter eludes me -- possibly because I'm just so used to working > with CF which is a loosely-typed-to-untyped language or JavaScript > which has no "compile-time" directives. I have worked with typed > languages like C++, Java and iirc PERL in the past, but not much > recently. I take that back -- I've done a lot more work with Java > since the release of MX, but very little (if any) involving math with > Java. Let's imagine that Bob is a variable that isn't typed (or, rather, is an untyped or void pointer, but we're nitpicking). Bob is then pointed to an object that has a function "double". Now, let's imagine that Bob could be one of two types of string. The first is a basic string in which double() repeats the string, so if Bob contains "text" Bob.double() returns "texttext". Now let's pretend that Bob is an extension of the string object that is a numberstring. Now, if Bob contains "two", Bob.double() will return "four". We've done this using overloading and polymorphism. Okay, so it's a silly example. However, it makes more sense if you think in terms of, for example, window objects which may have different modalities and, therefore, require different definitions of "maximize" or "close" or even "parent". --Ben ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Purchase Studio MX from House of Fusion, a Macromedia Authorized Affiliate and support the CF community. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=50 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:155326 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
