This is not a character-count issue, neither a "is mathematically calculable" issue. It's a readability and maintainability issue. When developing games we have 3 options:
1. Use Math.PI * 2 everywhere 2. Create a TAU constant on every file 3. Create a TAU constant on a single file and require this file from everywhere just for this For readability I should choose the second one, for maintainability the third one, if it's on Math it's both maintainable and readable. This kind of problems creates distractions when creating a game. I don't see the problem, it's a simple solution for a recurrent issue. --- A. Matías Quezada Senior Javascript Developer [email protected] 2014-07-02 11:14 GMT+02:00 Alex Kocharin <[email protected]>: > > If writing 'foo'.startsWith('foo') instead of 'foo'.indexOf('foo')==0 > worth extending String's prototype (which IS a big deal), another math > constant is worth it (since it is actually useful, see Rick's googling > results). > > If javascript was a language with tiny api, yes, your argument will hold. > But currently includes anything more or less useful for programmer's > convenience, and since Math utils becoming more important (people start to > write complex math in it which was impossible a few years ago due to > performance... is webgl in use already?), adding tau is well worth it. > > > Remembering that PI*2 is TAO is required to even make use of it, > unless/until mathematicians, books, and wikipedia start using TAO where 2 > PI is currently used, you have to convert them. > > Nope. It is the length of the unit circle, end of story. I don't need to > remember what is it to start writing `if (x >= Math.TAU) x -= Math.TAU` for > boundary check for example. > > Also... it TAU, not TAO. If you don't know what it is and use 2*PI all > over the place, of course it won't be useful for you. But it doesn't mean > that it's silly. > > > 01.07.2014, 04:26, "Frankie Bagnardi" <[email protected]>: > > String.prototype.endsWith and Object.is are functions, and their JS > implementations are nontrivial to memorize and type (although not the worst > examples). Memorizing PI to more than a few digits is nontrivial. Same > with Math.E, or Math.atan2, or most of the other Math functions and > properties. > > Remembering that PI*2 is TAO is required to even make use of it, > unless/until mathematicians, books, and wikipedia start using TAO where 2 > PI is currently used, you have to convert them. So if you decide to used > it, you already know the definition. The alternative to other things in > JavaScript (for the most part) spending time researching how to implement > it, comparing existing implementations, or having to look up a constant > value (e.g. 3.141592653589793). > > Seems a little silly, and I'd rather see some of the use cases for it end > up on Math if anything. > > > On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 4:55 PM, Alex Kocharin <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > 30.06.2014, 21:09, "C. Scott Ananian" <[email protected]>: > > On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 1:01 PM, Rick Waldron <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Just because other languages don't include a TAU constant doesn't mean > ECMAScript cannot. > > Just because "serious mathematicians" think this is "crackpot territory", > doesn't mean it's not useful (the condescension of that claim certainly > isn't). > > > As I mentioned, although I am a pi-ist, I think Math.TAU is harmless. But > I will qualify the "not useful" part -- there is no numerical accuracy > benefit to using Math.TAU (only the floating point exponent changes), nor > is there likely to be any emitted-code improvement (constant propagation > being a standard part of any reasonable runtime). So the benefit is solely > the single character minimized code size improvement from '2*Math.PI' to > 'Math.TAU' (if this were significant wouldn't the minimizers be assigning > this to a single-character variable already?) > > > > It's not about code size or numerical accuracy. When developing HTML5 > games where a lot of trigonometric calculus takes place, I'm used to see > 2*Math.PI more often than Math.PI by itself. People usually treat it as one > single constant (which is prone to errors if someone writes 1/2*Math.PI > instead of 1/(2*Math.PI)). It's just better to replace it with one constant > than having this multiplication appear everywhere. > > So I'd like to see this make its way to the standard... it's certainly > more useful than, say, String.prototype.endsWith or Object.is :) > > // alex > > _______________________________________________ > es-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/es-discuss > > > _______________________________________________ > es-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/es-discuss > >
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