[r6rs-discuss] [Formal] inf.0 and nan.0 should remain symbols.

[William D Clinger]

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This message is a formal comment which was submitted to formal-comment at r6rs.org, following the requirements described at: http://www.r6rs.org/process.html
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Submitter: William D Clinger
Email address: will at ccs.neu.edu
Issue type: Defect
Priority: Trivial
Component: Lexical Syntax
Report version: 5.91
Summary: inf.0 and nan.0 should remain symbols.

Full description of issue:

According to the formal grammar that is spread over
pages 11 through 15 of the draft R6RS, inf.0 and nan.0
are external representations of numbers as well as
symbols.  That syntactic ambiguity is undesirable,
has no stated rationale, and creates a gratuitous
incompatibility with the R5RS, in which both inf.0
and nan.0 are symbols.

Furthermore the draft R6RS neglects to define or to
constrain the numerical interpretation of inf.0 and
nan.0.

I recommend that inf.0 and nan.0 remain symbols in
the R6RS.

[end of comment]