[NOOB] Finding Information (was: real noob question)
-
On Jan 18, 2009, at 1:06 AM, Rob Keniger wrote:
> On 18/01/2009, at 11:18 AM, Darren Stuart wrote:
>
>> Hi there, sorry for the real noobish question but I can't figure
>> this out or find an answer.
>>
>> I have a variable called myMoney and its a NSDecimalNumber and I
>> want to set init it with the value of 23.30.
>>
>> NSDecimalNumber *myMoney = [[NSDecimalNumber alloc] init];
>>
>> If this is the wrong place to post this sort of question please can
>> someone point to such a place.
>>
>> Kind Regards
>>
>> Darren
>
> You can't find an answer - have you had a look at the documentation?
> It's right there.
>
> http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes
/NSDecimalNumber_Class/Reference/Reference.html
Sometimes to the newbie it may seem astounding that experienced Cocoa
programmers can snap back with specific references. These are not
really that difficult to find. Might I suggest an address to keep in
mind for searching for information:
http://developer.apple.com/cocoa
Then use the search box in the upper right.
In regard to the OP's query, I entered "creating a decimal number"
The lead result is the NSDecimalNumberHandler Class Reference, as a
PDF, as documented for iPhone, and as having the link Rob reported
above. -
On 19/01/2009 9:47 AM, Stuart Malin wrote:
>> You can't find an answer - have you had a look at the documentation?
>> It's right there.
>>
>> http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes
/NSDecimalNumber_Class/Reference/Reference.html
>>
>
> Sometimes to the newbie it may seem astounding that experienced Cocoa
> programmers can snap back with specific references. These are not
> really that difficult to find. Might I suggest an address to keep in
> mind for searching for information:
>
> http://developer.apple.com/cocoa
Excellent tip! Also check out http://developer.apple.com/mac/ (Which I
seem to have automatic access to because I signed up to the iphone dev site)
-jacob -
On 19 Jan 2009, at 00:21, Stuart Malin <stuart...> wrote:
> On Jan 18, 2009, at 1:06 AM, Rob Keniger wrote:
>
>> On 18/01/2009, at 11:18 AM, Darren Stuart wrote:
>>
>>> Hi there, sorry for the real noobish question but I can't figure
>>> this out or find an answer.
>>>
>>> I have a variable called myMoney and its a NSDecimalNumber and I
>>> want to set init it with the value of 23.30.
>>>
>>> NSDecimalNumber *myMoney = [[NSDecimalNumber alloc] init];
>>>
>>> If this is the wrong place to post this sort of question please can
>>> someone point to such a place.
>>>
>>> Kind Regards
>>>
>>> Darren
>>
>> You can't find an answer - have you had a look at the documentation?
>> It's right there.
>>
>> http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes
/NSDecimalNumber_Class/Reference/Reference.html
>
> Sometimes to the newbie it may seem astounding that experienced Cocoa
> programmers can snap back with specific references. These are not
> really that difficult to find. Might I suggest an address to keep in
> mind for searching for information:
>
> http://developer.apple.com/cocoa
>
> Then use the search box in the upper right.
>
> In regard to the OP's query, I entered "creating a decimal number"
> The lead result is the NSDecimalNumberHandler Class Reference, as a
> PDF, as documented for iPhone, and as having the link Rob reported
> above.
I too followed up on the example link which took me to the top of the
NSDecimalNumber Class reference document. Scrolling down the first
thing I came accross under Tasks was "Creating a Decimal Number" and
just beneath that a link to
+ decimalNumberWithDecimal:
which looked exactly like what the OP was asking for, viz:
<>
Creates and returns an NSDecimalNumber object equivalent to a given
NSDecimal structure.
+ (NSDecimalNumber *)decimalNumberWithDecimal:(NSDecimal)decimal>
</>
Ah, and look perhaps I don't need to use an alloc....
Now with all respect to the writers of this documentation, my first
question is "what is a decimal structure?". Now I think I know what a
"decimal structure" might be, namely a number written using the
decimal notation - is that with or without decimal points?
I followed up on NSDecimal and obtained:
<>
NSDecimal
Used to describe a decimal number.
typedef struct {
signed int _exponent:8;
unsigned int _length:4;
unsigned int _isNegative:1;
unsigned int _isCompact:1;
unsigned int _reserved:18;
unsigned short _mantissa[NSDecimalMaxSize];
} NSDecimal;
</>
Scareeeeeee!!!! and nothing like what I thought it might be.
Of course, I should have seen the bracketed NSDecimal in front of the
"decimal" alerting me to the fact that this was either a cocoa object
or C struct, and hence the use of the word "structure". Indeed the
very use of an unsusual word like structure should have alerted me to
the fact that this was not an english language construct that was
being denoted but rather a "data structure" or more accurately a
struct data type. But as you can see, even after a year and a half of
looking through this documentation I am still able to make basic
mistakes in literacy. I have had reason to think about this quite
frequently and have come to the conclusion that there is nothing
simple or straightforward about writing easy to use technical manuals.
One of the main problems it seems to me occurs when I'm trying to get
quickly to an answer and rather than read and digest every word of the
manual (how many hours might that take?) I scan looking for key words
that I hope will take me in the desired direction. It often seems to
me that we fail to take human psychology sufficiently into account
when designing such documents And somewhere in all that searching
through a manual I think we can get waylaid by phoenomena not unlike
those relating to "inattentional blindness" or "change blindness". For
instance take a look at this video to see just how fragile is our
ability to attend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voAntzB7EwE&eurl
and the set of videos here
http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/djs_lab/demos.html
with discussions of the phenomena here
http://www.skepdic.com/inattentionalblindness.html
http://www.skepdic.com/changeblindness.html
and of the unwelcome effects of this in the inspection of complex
systems
http://www.inspect-ny.com/vision/vision.htm
O.K. lets leave that and go back to see if we can find something that
looks a bit more like the OP's number : 23.30.
The next heading beneath "Creating a Decimal Number" is "Initializing
a Decimal Number" and head of the list is
<>
– initWithDecimal:
</>
That looks promising.. but
<>
initWithDecimal:
Returns an NSDecimalNumber object initialized to represent a given
decimal.
- (id)initWithDecimal:(NSDecimal)decimal>
</>
No good: there's that NSDecimal again, but note that this time it is
not described as a structure but as a "decimal" !!!!
Back to the top of the list:
<>
Initializing a Decimal Number
* – initWithDecimal:
* – initWithMantissa:exponent:isNegative:
* – initWithString:
* – initWithString:locale:
</>
But there is nothing here that looks anything like it would allow me
to intialise with a numeric value like 23.30.
What about – initWithString: could we write something like this:
x = [decimalObject initWithString:"23.30"];
Looks good
<>
- (id)initWithString:(NSString *)numericString
</>
But to check that this is the method for us follow the link that comes
with NSString and which takes us to the top of its class reference.
Well there's a lot to get through there before we get to the list of
Tasks and even then...
I'll stop here. My point is that learning a system via the manual is
not the easiest thing in the world and just pointing people at
specific pages in the manual though helpful is not always necessarily
the best way of doing things. The fact is that Cocoa is a very
sophisticated system which allows for very sophisticated programming
usage and it is the manner of that usage which is frequently less than
obvious in the documentation and which is frequently essential to
one's ability to understand what is being described.
So what is a simple answer to the OP's question?
Does x = [decimalObject initWithString:"23.30"]; actually work?
Go into XCode and sdo XCode->New Project -> Cocoa project and modify
main so it looks like this
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
NSDecimalNumber *myDecimalObj = [[NSDecimalNumber
alloc]initWithString:@"23.30"];
NSLog(@"myDecimalObj doubleValue=%6.3f",[myDecimalObj
doubleValue]);
}
and Run. Here is the log
2009-01-19 12:25:06.479 test[384:10b] myDecimalObj doubleValue=23.300
Yep. It works. Now I know. But is that what the OP was actually after
or was the 23.3 simply an example of a numeric value? Even now I'm
not clear whether I could create a decimal number with a double , e.g.
something like
cGFloatValue = 23.3;
NSDecimalNumber *myDecimalObj = [[NSDecimalNumber
alloc]initWithDouble: cGFloatValue];
Quickly returning to the NSDecimalNumber documentation I see nothing
obvious, not without a few contortions. Why is there no simple
initialisation of this kind I wonder? So why would one want to use
NSDecimalNumber anyway, just as a means of converting string input or
formatting strings in the output? No idea. Where would I use this
"object-oriented wrapper for doing base-10 arithmetic"? Is it to
handle really long numbers? e.g.
http://www.dzone.com/links/cocoa_tutorial_dont_be_lazy_with_nsdecimalnumber
.html
But then
http://cocoawithlove.com/2008/05/square-root-numerical-fun-with.html
says "Sadly, NSDecimalNumber does not appear to be written for the
mathematically or scientifically inclined. Its operators are mostly
limited to basic arithmetic".
One of those imponderable mysteries I guess. But someone must have
thought it worthwhile.... so why not say so in the documentation?
Julius
http://juliuspaintings.co.uk -
On Jan 19, 2009, at 6:10 AM, julius wrote:
> I too followed up on the example link which took me to the top ofTypically here I would either click the link to NSDecimal in the
> the NSDecimalNumber Class reference document. Scrolling down the
> first thing I came accross under Tasks was "Creating a Decimal
> Number" and just beneath that a link to
> + decimalNumberWithDecimal:
> which looked exactly like what the OP was asking for, viz:
> <>
> Creates and returns an NSDecimalNumber object equivalent to a given
> NSDecimal structure.
> + (NSDecimalNumber *)decimalNumberWithDecimal:(NSDecimal)decimal>
> </>
> Ah, and look perhaps I don't need to use an alloc....
> Now with all respect to the writers of this documentation, my first
> question is "what is a decimal structure?".
>
method declaration, or go to the Companion Guide listed at the top of
the API reference.
Or ... (see below)
> I followed up on NSDecimal and obtained:
> [...]
> Scareeeeeee!!!! and nothing like what I thought it might be.
>
So either back to NSDecimalNumber, or to the Companion Guide.
> I have had reason to think about this quite frequently and have come
> to the conclusion that there is nothing simple or straightforward
> about writing easy to use technical manuals.
>
Indeed.
> One of the main problems it seems to me occurs when I'm trying to
> get quickly to an answer and rather than read and digest every word
> of the manual
>
I have had reason to think about this quite frequently and have come
to the conclusion that, when documentation is written, it should be
padded with extraneous words and phrases that readers can safely ignore.
> O.K. lets leave that and go back to see if we can find somethingIt's not clear why, throughout, you have ignored:
> that looks a bit more like the OP's number : 23.30.
> The next heading beneath "Creating a Decimal Number" is
> "Initializing a Decimal Number" and head of the list is
> <>
> – initWithDecimal:
> </>
> That looks promising.. but
> <>
> initWithDecimal:
> Returns an NSDecimalNumber object initialized to represent a given
> decimal.
> - (id)initWithDecimal:(NSDecimal)decimal>
> </>
>
> No good: there's that NSDecimal again, but note that this time it is
> not described as a structure but as a "decimal" !!!!
> Back to the top of the list:
> <>
> Initializing a Decimal Number
> * – initWithDecimal:
> * – initWithMantissa:exponent:isNegative:
> * – initWithString:
> * – initWithString:locale:
> </>
>
> But there is nothing here that looks anything like it would allow me
> to intialise with a numeric value like 23.30.
>
(a) initWithMantissa:exponent:isNegative:
(b) "Inherits from NSNumber : NSValue : NSObject"
In this case, (b) might have actually lead you astray(*), but it
should have been in your search path.
(*) <http://www.cocoabuilder.com/archive/message/cocoa/2009/1/10/227253>
(You did search the archives as well, didn't you?)
> I'll stop here.Why?
>
At this stage, although you should actually have found an answer, you
should have at least looked at the Companion Guide and if that didn't
address the issue you should have sent in feedback using either the
form at the bottom of each documentation page or using Radar.
> My point is that learning a system via the manual is not the easiestLooking at just the API reference pages is typically as useful a way
> thing in the world and just pointing people at specific pages in the
> manual though helpful is not always necessarily the best way of
> doing things.
>
to learn about Cocoa as using a dictionary to learn a foreign
language. If you want to learn about how methods etc. are used in
context, then turn to the Companion Guides.
> One of those imponderable mysteries I guess. But someone must haveAll the references to Companion Guide above notwithstanding, as it
> thought it worthwhile.... so why not say so in the documentation?
>
happens, this isn't well addressed in the Guide. Please either send
feedback or file a Radar (<http://bugreport.apple.com/>) to have this
addressed.
mmalc -
On Jan 19, 2009, at 11:17 AM, mmalc Crawford wrote:
>
> On Jan 19, 2009, at 6:10 AM, julius wrote:
>>
>> But there is nothing here that looks anything like it would allow
>> me to intialise with a numeric value like 23.30.
>>
> It's not clear why, throughout, you have ignored:
> (a) initWithMantissa:exponent:isNegative:
In my case, when I went through almost exactly the same gyration that
julius describes a while ago, I didn't know what a mantissa was, and I
have a decent math and engineering background. I'm sure it is buried
in the depths of some textbook that I haven't seen for 10 years, but
it's not something that springs to mind.
I'm not sure this is a documentation failure as much as a language
failure, at least in this case. Why isn't there an initWithInt: or
initWithFloat: like in some other cases? THAT would have resulted in
the documentation page leading to the correct answer. Mantissa? Come
on. I guess the initWithString: is easy enough, but my brain doesn't
mix-n-match strings and numbers very well, so it didn't occur to me to
try.
Brian -
On Jan 19, 2009, at 11:57 AM, Brian Slick wrote:
> On Jan 19, 2009, at 11:17 AM, mmalc Crawford wrote:Discussion
>> On Jan 19, 2009, at 6:10 AM, julius wrote:
>>> But there is nothing here that looks anything like it would allow
>>> me to intialise with a numeric value like 23.30.
>> It's not clear why, throughout, you have ignored:
>> (a) initWithMantissa:exponent:isNegative:
> In my case, when I went through almost exactly the same gyration
> that julius describes a while ago, I didn't know what a mantissa
> was, and I have a decent math and engineering background.
>
The arguments express a number in a type of scientific notation that
requires the mantissa to be an integer. So, for example, if the number
to be represented is 1.23, it is expressed as 123x10^–2—mantissa is
123; exponent is –2; and isNegative, which refers to the sign of the
mantissa, is NO.
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes
/NSDecimalNumber_Class/Reference/Reference.html#//apple_ref/occ/instm/NSDec
imalNumber/initWithMantissa:exponent:isNegative:>
<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en-us&sa=X
&oi=spell&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&q=mantissa&spell=
1>
-> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significand>
mmalc -
On 01/19/2009 11:57 AM, "Brian Slick" <brianslick...> wrote:
> I'm not sure this is a documentation failure as much as a language
> failure, at least in this case. Why isn't there an initWithInt: or
> initWithFloat: like in some other cases? THAT would have resulted in
> the documentation page leading to the correct answer. Mantissa? Come
> on. I guess the initWithString: is easy enough, but my brain doesn't
> mix-n-match strings and numbers very well, so it didn't occur to me to
> try.
>
> Brian
NSDecimalNumber inherits from NSNumber. -
On 19 Jan 2009, at 16:17, mmalc Crawford wrote:
>
> On Jan 19, 2009, at 6:10 AM, julius wrote:
>
>> I too followed up on the example link which took me to the top of
>> the NSDecimalNumber Class reference document. Scrolling down the
>> first thing I came accross under Tasks was "Creating a Decimal
>> Number" and just beneath that a link to
>> + decimalNumberWithDecimal:
>> which looked exactly like what the OP was asking for, viz:
>> <>
>> Creates and returns an NSDecimalNumber object equivalent to a given
>> NSDecimal structure.
>> + (NSDecimalNumber *)decimalNumberWithDecimal:(NSDecimal)decimal>
>> </>
>> Ah, and look perhaps I don't need to use an alloc....
>> Now with all respect to the writers of this documentation, my first
>> question is "what is a decimal structure?".
>>
> Typically here I would either click the link to NSDecimal in the
> method declaration, or go to the Companion Guide listed at the top
> of the API reference.
> Or ... (see below)
>
>> I followed up on NSDecimal and obtained:
>> [...]
>> Scareeeeeee!!!! and nothing like what I thought it might be.
>>
>
> So either back to NSDecimalNumber,
> or to the Companion Guide.True, I don't go there as often as perhaps I should.
Following up on your suggestion I just did and went directly to the
“Using Decimal Numbers” part of the document
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/NumbersandValues/
Articles/DecimalNumbers.html#/
/apple_ref/doc/uid/20000176-CJBCAGDI
where it says
<>
Using Decimal Numbers
NSDecimalNumber is an immutable subclass of NSNumber that provides an
object-oriented wrapper for doing base-10 arithmetic. An instance can
represent any number that can be expressed as mantissa x 10 exponent
where mantissa is a decimal integer up to 38 digits long, and exponent
is an integer between -128 and 127.
</>
and goes on to talk of calculation errors and the
NSDecimalNumberBehaviors protocol. It does not however illuminate what
I perceived as the OP's need for a way of doing something essentially
like [myDecimalNumberObj setValue: 23.3].
>I appreciate the irony but it misses the point that on many occasions
>
>> I have had reason to think about this quite frequently and have
>> come to the conclusion that there is nothing simple or
>> straightforward about writing easy to use technical manuals.
>>
>
> Indeed.
>
>
>> One of the main problems it seems to me occurs when I'm trying to
>> get quickly to an answer and rather than read and digest every word
>> of the manual
>>
>
> I have had reason to think about this quite frequently and have come
> to the conclusion that, when documentation is written, it should be
> padded with extraneous words and phrases that readers can safely
> ignore.
we really do just need a straight answer to a simple question.
Sometimes such an answer exists and sometimes it does not. Sometimes
to ask a particular question demonstrates sufficient ignorance to
suppose that it is a text book and not a manual one should be reading.
In the case of a text book a bit of redundancy is very useful
especially if it addresses the fact that each person has their own way
of learning. One would not expect much redundancy in a technical
manual but an excellently designed manual would consider the different
users and the different ways in which the information it contains
might be needed. For instance, one may contrast the need to understand
how something works from the need to find the correct switch to turn
the thing on.
I suppose there must be a good reason for there not being a simple way
of assigning a value to one of these NSDecimalNumber objects but I
could find no such reason in the documentation and its absence just
appears so intuitively unreasonable that one is loth to stop searching
(see below for why in this case a search would ultimately have been
successful). NSDecimalNumber appears to be used for arithmetic and as
a wrapper. I've had sufficient similar difficulties in the past with
wanting to wrap numbers to have ended up writing my own wrappers. So I
have a notion of the frustration one might feel in such cases.
>Well, i always look for the simplest answer first, e.g.
>
>
>> O.K. lets leave that and go back to see if we can find something
>> that looks a bit more like the OP's number : 23.30.
>> The next heading beneath "Creating a Decimal Number" is
>> "Initializing a Decimal Number" and head of the list is
>> <>
>> – initWithDecimal:
>> </>
>> That looks promising.. but
>> <>
>> initWithDecimal:
>> Returns an NSDecimalNumber object initialized to represent a given
>> decimal.
>> - (id)initWithDecimal:(NSDecimal)decimal>
>> </>
>>
>> No good: there's that NSDecimal again, but note that this time it
>> is not described as a structure but as a "decimal" !!!!
>> Back to the top of the list:
>> <>
>> Initializing a Decimal Number
>> * – initWithDecimal:
>> * – initWithMantissa:exponent:isNegative:
>> * – initWithString:
>> * – initWithString:locale:
>> </>
>>
>> But there is nothing here that looks anything like it would allow
>> me to intialise with a numeric value like 23.30.
>>
> It's not clear why, throughout, you have ignored:
> (a) initWithMantissa:exponent:isNegative:
> (b) "Inherits from NSNumber : NSValue : NSObject"
>
> In this case, (b) might have actually lead you astray(*), but it
> should have been in your search path.
initWithDouble:. Not finding that, I look for the next simplest, in
this case I went for the string option.
Why would I not have considered initWithMantissa:exponent:isNegative:?
Well my first thought is that now instead of having to deal with one
value I have to handle three. That tells me I'm getting into
complexities I would rather avoid. In the case of a literal such as
23.3 is easy enough to express is as mantissa exponent though one
still needs to be careful and there are consequences for code
readability. In the more general case of myCGFloatValue say, that
feels less inviting.
As to "inherits from NSNumber" wow! No. That was not the first place
I would have gone to look for an answer but now that I have, wow
indeed! Thank you very much. I'm still not used to going up and down
the inheritance hierarchy. That's what comes of not having been
brought up long term on OO.
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
NSDecimalNumber *myDecimalObj = [[NSDecimalNumber
alloc]initWithString:@"23.30"];
NSLog(@"myDecimalObj doubleValue=%6.3f",[myDecimalObj
doubleValue]);
CGFloat myCGFloatValue = 43.4;
NSDecimalNumber *myOtherDecimalObj = [[NSDecimalNumber
alloc]initWithFloat:myCGFloatValue];
NSLog(@"myOtherDecimalObj doubleValue=%6.3f",[myOtherDecimalObj
doubleValue]);
}
Result:
2009-01-19 20:00:36.655 test[3242:10b] myDecimalObj doubleValue=23.300
2009-01-19 20:00:36.656 test[3242:10b] myOtherDecimalObj
doubleValue=43.400
Most excellent.
Thanks again.
> >
> (You did search the archives as well, didn't you?)Well, I am not the OP here and I was just taking a quick look at the
problem and reporting on the possibility that actually finding the
answer was not of the easiest as indeed it was increasingly appearing
to be.
I have just taken a look at the link and it indicates there is no
easy answer. (except of course that there is and it is NSNumber! I had
written most of this before taking the advised look at the hierarchy)
>because it was not actually I who needed the answer but the OP and I
>
>
>> I'll stop here.
>>
> Why?
had other things to do. I merely was making the point that with the
best will in the world, the documentation is not always
straightforward. And how many times is it that it is the smallest of
things that impede our progress.
>As far as I can see in this case the companion guide does not take one
> At this stage, although you should actually have found an answer,
> you should have at least looked at the Companion Guide and if that
> didn't address the issue you should have sent in feedback using
> either the form at the bottom of each documentation page or using
> Radar.
far towards answering the OP's question.
>Yes but as I just said they don't always answer or help answer the
>
>
>> My point is that learning a system via the manual is not the
>> easiest thing in the world and just pointing people at specific
>> pages in the manual though helpful is not always necessarily the
>> best way of doing things.
>>
> Looking at just the API reference pages is typically as useful a way
> to learn about Cocoa as using a dictionary to learn a foreign
> language. If you want to learn about how methods etc. are used in
> context, then turn to the Companion Guides.
questions one needs answering.
>On this issue of feedback and bug reports. I would not feel it right
>
>
>> One of those imponderable mysteries I guess. But someone must have
>> thought it worthwhile.... so why not say so in the documentation?
>>
> All the references to Companion Guide above notwithstanding, as it
> happens, this isn't well addressed in the Guide. Please either send
> feedback or file a Radar (<http://bugreport.apple.com/>) to have
> this addressed.
to submit a bug report since i don't think of this as a bug. I have
frequently returned feedback along the lines of "an example would be
nice" or "how then does one do x!!!" but now do it rarely. There is
just so much of it.
Why then should I have spent so much time on this issue? I much
appreciate this list and the advice volunteered and sympathise with
the feelings of irritation that must be occasioned by people who could
perhaps have looked closer at the documentation or have not looked at
it at all. Nevertheless I sometimes feel the need to restate the
obvious: learning the system is not easy and sometimes the manual does
not give up its secrets readily. And as in the present instance it can
sometimes be the tiniest of things that stops one getting to the answer.
And thanks for the BIG HINT.
I'll definitely put that lesson into
http://juliuspaintings.co.uk/cgi-bin/paint_css/animatedPaint/animatedPaint.
pl
Wow!
All the best
Julius
http://juliuspaintings.co.uk -
On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 2:57 PM, Brian Slick <brianslick...> wrote:
> I'm not sure this is a documentation failure as much as a language failure,
> at least in this case. Why isn't there an initWithInt: or initWithFloat:
> like in some other cases? THAT would have resulted in the documentation
> page leading to the correct answer. Mantissa? Come on.
I really don't see the problem with this. While Apple generally does a
good job of insulating you from the details of how things work
underneath, you still have to know *something* about how things are
built. NSDecimalNumber is fundamentally built around mantissa and
exponent. Thinking the document is inadequate because it relies on
these concepts would be like thinking that the NSString documentation
is inadequate because it relies on the concept of "character".
There are basically only three ways to make a variable NSDecimalNumber
that are mentioned in the documentation. If faced with this problem,
it sure seems to me that it would be worth investigating all of them
before giving up.
Mike
