Expressing Mathematical Subroutines Constructively.
Abstract
The typical subroutines that compute sin(x) and exp(x) bear little resemblance to our mathematical knowledge of these functions: they are composed of concrete arithmetic expressions that include many mysterious numerical constants. Instead of programming these subroutines conventionally, we can express their construction using symbolic ideas such as periodicity and Taylor series. Such an approach has many advantages: the code is closer the mathematical basis of the function, less vulnerable to errors, and is trivially adaptable to various precisions. Keywords: Constructive programming; Bessel functions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1987
- Accession Number
- ADA190559
Entities
People
- Gerald L. Roylance
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology