Introduction to the SI Library of unit-based computation
Walter E. Brown · University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) · 1998
To address current deplorable practices in numeric computation, we set out to develop a software subsystem to provide a convenient means of expressing, computing with, and displaying numeric values with attached units, thus obtaining the well-known bene#12;ts of type safety consistent with recommended unit-based practices of long standing. An additional requirement of this project was to ensure strict compile-time type-checking without run-time overhead (i.e., at no run-time cost in time or in space). More speci#12;cally, we sought 1. application of current software technology to numeric physical concepts, 2. convenience of expression in such application, 3. general utility rooted in existing standards, 4. use of nomenclature from our problem domain, and 5. no attendant performance penalties! The present project, known as The SI Library of Unit-based Computation, has succeeded in addressing these requirements. The resulting software module (known hereinafter as the SI Library or, simply, the Library ) meets (and, in many respects, greatly exceeds!) all its goals and is intended for contribution (for non-commercial use) to the FPCLTF (\Zoom") project library at Fermilab.