Complexity Shock Horror II: the Sequel (was Re: MD5 in erlang .)

[Marc Ernst Eddy van Woerkom]

>   Yet, I don't see *any* scalar values in the world around me.  They *all*
>   have units of measurement.

Actually the scalars without dimension are import to characterize system behaviour

  http://www.processassociates.com/process/dimen/dn_all.htm

and are used e.g. to help building proper miniature models for aerodynamics.


BTW dimensional analysis 

  http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/dimanaly/

seems to be an instance of abstract interpretation

  http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?query=abstract+interpretation&action=Search

used in physics. :)


> For a while I tried designing a new language around measurements.  

Interesting.

Last time I did numerical simulations in engineering (around 1997) there was
still FORTRAN in use and things were moving slowly towards C++. 
The next big thing might be general use of interval arithmetics (where numeric
types get proven error bounds annotated for all calculations) in the
compilers (Sun is active here).
Annotating types with units for unit type safety I have not seen as a big 
concern yet. 

Regards,
Marc