| Philosophical Question about NAN [message #63770] |
Mon, 17 November 2008 06:58 |
David Fanning
Messages: 11724
Registered: August 2001
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Senior Member |
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Folks,
I've had a couple of run-ins lately with NANs and I wonder
why routines like TOTAL and MEAN don't have the NAN keyword
set to 1 by default. Why does the user have to set it?
I understand the argument that the NAN capability was
added as an afterthought (or more likely when someone
standardized the NAN bit pattern), and so the functionality
was added as an optional addition that enhanced the function
rather than changed it. But really...is there a reason
why it is not the default now?
One could argue, I suppose, that having a program stumble
over a NAN alerts you to its presence in your data. That
is useful, certainly. But, typically, once I add a NAN
keyword to my code, I don't know (nor do I or care) if the
argument has NANs. Is this lazy programming on my part?
I am just wondering whether not setting the default value
of the NAN keyword to 1 on routines like TOTAL, MEAN,
et. al is the functional equivalent of not setting the
default values of the COLOR and BITS_PER_PIXEL keywords
to the PostScript device to something useful by default.
That is, an act of negligence on the part of the
manufacturer.
What say you?
Cheers,
David
--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting, Inc.
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
Sepore ma de ni thui. ("Perhaps thou speakest truth.")
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