Re: help with statistics library

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:34:23 +0000, Jens Thoms Toerring wrote:

Richard Weeks <rweeks@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://members.shaw.ca/bystander/statsource.html

My first impression after a short look is that it looks rather
well-written and I so simply start with nit-picking:

[...]

4) There are a few instances where you cast where it isn't necessary.
E.g. if you divide a double by an int you don't have to cast the int
to double, the compiler will do that for you. The same holds for
instances where you assign an int to a double. Of course, the cast
doesn't hurt, but as a rule I avoid casts unless they are really
necessary and thus see casts as a "red flag" that says "here's
something happening that may need re-examination".

Just a nitpick of your nitpick: I tend to take the opposite view that
explicit casts are preferable to implicit casts, since they make the
intention of the code clearer (at the expense of some verbosity); if I
see:

double x,y;
int n;
/* lots of code */
y = x/n;

then I have to remind myself (with reference to the declaration of n)
that casting is taking place. On the other hand:

y = x/(double)n;

makes it immediately clear that a cast is intended.

No big deal though, it's probably a personal preference.

--
Lionel B
.

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