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Round a finite numerator over an infinite divisor to zero - #94

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PatrickHaecker:division_semantics
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PatrickHaecker:division_semantics

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fld and cld rounded away from zero and ignored the sign of the divisor,
giving cld(0, ∞) == 1, fld(-1, ∞) == -1 and fld(1, -∞) == 0. Base
rounds such a quotient to zero in all three modes and signs the zero by the
divisor. Follow it, so that an infinity behaves like the float infinity.

An infinite or NaN numerator now gives NotANumber, as div(Inf, Inf) gives NaN.

This is addressing #7, item 4

Based on #93.

Patrick Häcker added 3 commits September 25, 2026 10:46
A direction is an angle modulo a full turn, so the field now counts turns in
units of 2^-64 and wraps where the circle does. Every `UInt64` names a
direction and every direction has exactly one count, which the old half-turn
field did not manage: half turns of 0.5 and 2.5 pointed the same way yet
compared unequal and hashed apart. Wrapping also makes the group operation a
machine add, and the resolution is uniform instead of thinning out towards a
full turn.

The count is what the constructor takes. An angle has to be rounded to reach
it, so that step is now named at the call site with the `halfturns` keyword,
and the old `ComplexInfinity(0.5)` is a `MethodError` rather than a silent
reinterpretation. Most code needs neither form, since multiplying by `∞`
takes the direction from the other operand: `im*∞` and `(1+im)*∞`.

The element type carried no information about the value, only about how the
direction had been spelled, so it is gone. It had been standing in for "this
infinity lies on the real axis", and that was never what it meant: a zero
angle written as a float pointed along the positive real axis just as
`ComplexInfinity()` does, yet only the latter could be ordered or divided.
The union types that used the parameter as a proxy now leave a `ComplexInfinity`
out entirely, so the complex plane carries no order and takes no integer
operation, exactly as `Base` treats a `Complex`.

The count has 64 bits and an angle in a `Float64` has 53, so the two are kept
apart wherever the difference shows. Equality and `hash` read the count, never
the angle. `angle` reports on `Base`'s branch of `(-π, π]`. And `show` gives
the readable `cispi(h)∞` only where that reads back, and the count itself
otherwise, so every printed form evaluates to the value it came from.
Dropping the element type removed the only way to ask a `ComplexInfinity`
whether it points along the real axis, and that question was worth keeping:
it just belongs to the value rather than to the type. `isreal` takes it over,
and `RealInfinity` converts a direction that lies on the axis and throws an
`InexactError` otherwise, which is what `Real` does with a `Complex`.

So an order or an integer operation is still reachable, by naming the
conversion, and an infinity off the axis throws instead of quietly behaving
as if the imaginary part were not there.
`Base` returns `NaN` where two reals have no result and `NaN + NaN*im` where
either operand is complex, and this package only did half of that. Anything
computed *from* a `NotANumber` already came back complex against a complex
operand, but every place that *produced* one returned the real value, so
`NaN * ComplexInfinity()` and `NotANumber() * ComplexInfinity()` disagreed.

`_undefined` picks the value from the two operands and now stands wherever an
undefined result is made: a `NaN` argument, a zero times an infinity, two
infinities divided, and two infinities added in different directions. Only
five of those sites can see a complex operand at all; for the rest the choice
is decided at compile time and costs nothing.
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Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 100.00%. Comparing base (08ccb94) to head (d254f44).

Additional details and impacted files
@@            Coverage Diff            @@
##            master       #94   +/-   ##
=========================================
  Coverage   100.00%   100.00%           
=========================================
  Files            6         8    +2     
  Lines          336       383   +47     
=========================================
+ Hits           336       383   +47     

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Patrick Häcker added 9 commits September 25, 2026 14:00
This takes over ideas from JuliaMath#20 created by @cscherrer. So thanks for that contribution!
As the PR is 5 years old, quite some things are now obsolete.

A nice side-effect was finding and fixing a missing `infpromote` for `Bool`.
This would benefit from someone looking at it who knows ForwardDiff
better than I do.

Fixes: JuliaMath#13
There is only a negative or a positive infinity in the real space.
However, there can still be an arbitrary number of Julia implementations
of both values. So keep `RealInfinity` as an abstract type and let it
have a proper interface.

Fixes JuliaMath#78
I am not fully convinced, that these are a good idea. This is addressing item 2
in JuliaMath#7.
If we merge the current change, JuliaMath#7, item 2 can be considered done.
Otherwise we should reject it there and also consider this item done
The complex plane carries no order, so `Base` does not defines `isless`, `<`, `≤`,
`min` and `max` for `Complex`. This package ordered a `ComplexInfinity`
against a real one anyway, which was also inconsistent: `isless(im*∞, +∞)`
was `true` while `isless(0, im*∞)` was a `MethodError`.

Restrict the ordering to the real infinities that lie on the real line.
Convert a `ComplexInfinity` with `RealInfinity` to compare it.

Addresses JuliaMath#7, item 5
`fld` and `cld` rounded away from zero and ignored the sign of the divisor,
giving `cld(0, ∞) == 1`, `fld(-1, ∞) == -1` and `fld(1, -∞) == 0`. `Base`
rounds such a quotient to zero in all three modes and signs the zero by the
divisor. Follow it, so that an infinity behaves like the float infinity.

An infinite or `NaN` numerator now gives `NotANumber`, as `div(Inf, Inf)` gives `NaN`.
Before Julia 1.13, `Base` itself answers `fld(-1.5, Inf) === NaN` and
`fld(-0.0, Inf) === -0.0`, so the comparison failed on the LTS runners. The
expected zeros are still checked on every version by the loop above it.
`ℵ₀` is an `Integer`, and `Base` divides two integers in floating point, so `2 / ℵ₀` is `0.0`
rather than `0`. This also keeps the sign of a negative numerator, as `-2 / ℵ₀` is `-0.0`.
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