Comment by amelius
2 days ago
A smart compiler should be able to figure out a better value for 0/0, depending on context.
For example:
for i in range(0, 10):
print(i/0.0)
In this case it should probably print +inf when i == 0.
But:
for i in range(-10, 10):
print(i/0.0)
Now it is not clear, but at least we know it's an infinity so perhaps we need a special value +-inf.
And:
for i in range(-10, 10):
print(i/i)
In this case, the value for 0/0 can be 1.
Well, it could, but that would be against the spec. The hardware implements IEEE 754, most languages guarantee IEEE 754, and transforming code so that 0.0/0.0 doesn't result in NaN would be invalid.