[plt-scheme] cutting out of Interactions window

At Wed, 26 Oct 2005 11:20:30 -0400, Prabhakar Ragde wrote:
> Matthias Felleisen wrote:
> 
> >> There is a textual representation of the number right there in the
> >>  Interactions window. I can see why images become snips, but not
> >> why this has to happen for numbers. Is there a purpose to a number
> >> snip cut out of the Interactions window? What would one do with it
> >> that would work, unlike pasting it into the Definitions window?
> >> --PR
> > 
> > Fractions. They are snips. -- Matthias
> 
> Yes, and you can tell, as with images, because they don't look like
> normal text in the Interactions window. (Though I don't see the harm in
> cutting a fraction and having it pasted as 5/6 instead of 5 atop 6 with
> a horizontal bar beneath.) You can't tell that a computed number is a
> snip, except by the colour, which is pretty subtle.

We used a snip rather than a textual representation to balance the
demands of showing the students numbers in the familiar decimal
notation, while not losing precision. You can see this with numbers
like 1/3, but perhaps a more interesting case is numbers like
(+ 1/3 (/ 1 (* 3 (expt 10 100)))) or even worse 779625/32258 

Also, if you copy and paste that snip into a non-drscheme place, you do
get some textual approximation.

Robby