In a sense this section is only required because of OO languages that support the concept of a primitive type (Java, C++) in languages like ruby and smalltalk and even python everything is an object. So you should prefer ruby x.abs to vanilla processings abs(x) etc.

Fixnum

Holds Integer values that can be represented in a native machine word (minus 1 bit). If any operation on a Fixnum exceeds this range, the value is automatically converted to a Bignum.

Float

Float objects represent inexact real numbers using the native architecture’s double-precision floating point representation. Floating point has a different arithmetic and is an inexact number.

constants

  • DIG The minimum number of significant decimal digits in a double-precision floating point. Usually defaults to 15.
  • EPSILON The difference between 1 and the smallest double-precision floating point number. Usually defaults to 2.2204460492503131e-16.

Bignum

Bignum objects hold integers outside the range of Fixnum. Bignum objects are created automatically when integer calculations would otherwise overflow a Fixnum. When a calculation involving Bignum objects returns a result that will fit in a Fixnum, the result is automatically converted.

Rational

A rational number can be represented as a paired integer number; a/b (b>0). Where a is numerator and b is denominator. Integer a equals rational a/1 mathematically. A rational object is an exact number, which helps you to write program without any rounding errors.

JRubyArt

We have re-opened the Numeric class to implement radians and degree methods, which means that instead of using radians(x) a processing method, you should use x.radians in JRubyArt. But this should not be so necessary now we have DegLut.cos and DegLut.sin methods.