On Wed, 28 May 2003 15:13:05 -0700, ANDRES VALLOND wrote
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: jan ziak <ziakjan at host.sk>
> Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 1:41 pm
> Subject: Re: is squeak really object oriented ?
> 
> > addition to the sign systems: i can say that the dot
> > in 0.5 will be denoted by 25 dots forming some shape.
> > analogically for -5, pi, i, ... 
> 
> This is not true.
> 
> No integer amount of dots will suffice to represent the real numbers, 
> of which integers, rationals, algebraics, and delicious examples like 
> pi^e are just an insignificant few.
> 
> Andres.

i think you are wrong ... they will suffice

real numbers, integers, rational, etc are denoted by signs, aren't they ? i 
can encode those signs into another notation (for example into the dotty 
notation. for example, we have only signs "0" and "1" in a computer and can 
form sequences of those signs - but this is sufficient to express any number 
you can think of.

note: infinity (oo) is also a symbol. it is the way how we use this symbol 
and not the symbol itself which makes infinity.