(j3.2006) Asymmetry of REAL, CMPLX

[Robert Corbett]

Van Snyder wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-01-07 at 20:27 -0800, Robert Corbett wrote:
> 
>>I am one of those who proposed providing a new intrinsic spelled
>>COMPLEX that would be symmetric.  In what sense does it not solve
>>the problem?
> 
> 
> The problem is the surprise caused by the asymmetry of REAL and CMPLX.
> This negatively affects reliability and economics.

Yes, but if the standard, over time, replaces CMPLX with a symmetric
routine named COMPLEX, the problem goes away as far as the standard
is concerned. Implementations would be forced to support the then
nonstandard intrinsic CMPLX, but the standard would be clean.

Bob Corbett