From: monnier@iro.umontreal.ca   
      
   > If you look at Java's BigDecimal operations   
   > ,   
   > they all have versions without and width MathContext (which includes a   
   > target scale and a rounding mode), and sometimes additional variants   
   > (e.g., divide() has variants where you pass just the rounding mode, or   
   > the rounding mode and scale individually instead of through a   
   > MathContext).   
      
   I wonder how that would compare in practice with a Rational type, where   
   all arithmetic operations are exact (and thus don't need anything like   
   a MathContext) and you simply provide a rounding function that takes   
   two argument: a "target scale" (in the form of a target denominator) and   
   a rounding mode.   
      
   [ Extra points for implementing compiler optimizations that keep track   
     of the denominators statically to try and do away with the   
     denominators at run-time as much as possible.  Maybe also figure out   
     how to eliminate the use of bignums for the numerators.  🙂  ]   
      
      
   - Stefan   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)