[sc34wg3] More on TMCL MAX_INT

[Lars Marius Garshol]

Graham sent me this:

> Why can you just make a new data type that is integer plus the "*"
> symbol. * can't be a topic identifier so no problem there. It seems
> like by trying to do a quick and dirty reuse of an existing (and
> actually incompatible) data type it has introduced a whole bunch of
> unintuitive things.

I'm not sure what the "whole bunch of unintuitive things" are, to be  
honest. The change that's proposed now is to make "INF" a keyword for  
that xsd:double value. It has the effect of stealing the topic ID  
"INF", but nothing more.

Well, it also has the effect that the datatype of card-min and card- 
max is no longer simply xsd:integer, but something trickier.

I also thought about using the "*" symbol. If we did, then:

  - we introduce another special character, which might or might not be
    in use by TMQL already,

  - we have to map * to "INF"^^xsd:double, which is perhaps not the
    most intuitive solution,

  - INF is no longer a keyword, and

  - the datatype problems with card-min/max remain.

I don't know. I think I prefer "INF", but if others disagree, speak up.

Personally, I still prefer cardinality topics, which would avoid all  
this.

--Lars M.
http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/
http://www.garshol.priv.no/tmphoto/