Decimal Literals

[Ashley Yakeley]

In article <3F095C21.8020601@info.unicaen.fr>,
 Jerzy Karczmarczuk <karczma@info.unicaen.fr> wrote:

> If I were to write
> 
> pi = 3.1415926536 :: Rational
> 
> I suppose that I would like to see rather 355/113 or something close,
> than 3926990817/1250000000 or similar.

There should be a separate syntax for that. As it stands, the string 
"3.1415926536" unambiguously specifies a rational number. Perhaps 
something like "3.1415926536..." should be interpreted as the 'simplest' 
rational that agrees with the given digits, which would then be passed 
to fromRational.

Also, it might be nice to be able to specify the recurring digits of 
other rationals, for instance

 0._3 = 1/3
 0.29_54 = 13/44
 etc.

-- 
Ashley Yakeley, Seattle WA