>
> By the way, Robert -- who answered the previous email -- wrote _fast_float.

Yes, I know :)  He's too modest.

Okay, this helps a lot - this should take care of it, and helps me
understand the syntax of both things.  Thanks!

- kcrisman

+++++++++++++++++

Concluding unscientific postscript:

This brings up a question I have asked before, about when to use
(e.g.) _fast_float_ or polynomial rings or whatever... Is there a
heuristic for when this should be done in *ordinary* code, i.e. not
intended for inclusion in Sage and maybe even written in five minutes
for class?  It's clearly not always worth it or it would be
ubiquitous, and I am puzzled as to why I needed it here (only 49
points, right?).

Let me put it a slightly more pungent way, with respect.  Suppose I am
potential educational Sage user X, with not much time or programming
experience but willing to try anything if it might help.  I try the
thing in the first email, and it really bites.  Since I am only a
potential Sage user, and I am not likely to email the support list
(there are a lot of these, in my anecdotal experience), I just decide
Sage isn't very useful for me and stick with my other options -
whether those are Ms or just not using computers in class, which after
all worked quite well for hundreds of years.  Will the pynac symbolics
take away all my problems, or will I still have to add this
(completely incomprehensible to my students) _fast_float_ thing, and
only that if I am persistent enough to find it by searching this
group, the wiki, or the documentation for quite a while (assuming I
didn't know that I was looking for something like this ahead of time)?
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