Detecting inadvertent use of integer division

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

Walter Bright wrote:
> Don wrote:
>> Integer expressions remain inexact until there's a cast.
>>
>> (It's very simple to implement, you just use the integer range code, 
>> adding an 'inexact' flag. Division sets the flag, casts clear the 
>> flag, everything else just propagates it if a unary operation, or ORs 
>> the two flags if a binary operation).
> 
> That sounds like a very good idea.

I think the same (though I personally am not liable because it's been 
burned in my brain to always add ".0" to FP-involved literals). It's an 
improvement in the same vein as value range propagation.

Should we make this part of the language, or as a quality of 
implementation issue? I prefer the former, because the latter means that 
code compiles on one machine and doesn't on another.


Andrei