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Basic Data Types for Two-Dimensional Geometry

LEDA provides a collection of simple data types for computational geometry, such as points, vectors, directions, hyperplanes, segments, rays, lines, affine transformations, circles, polygons, and operations connecting these types.

The computational geometry kernel has evolved over time. The first kernel (types point, line, ...) was restricted to two-dimensional geometry and used floating point arithmetic as the underlying arithmetic. We found it very difficult to implement reliable geometric algorithms based on this kernel. See the chapter on computational geometry of [64] for some examples of the danger of floating point arithmetic in geometric computations. Starting with version 3.2 we therefore also provided a kernel based on exact rational arithmetic (types rat_point, rat_segment ...). (This kernel is still restricted to two dimensions.)
From version 4.5 on we offer a two-dimensional kernel based on the type real, which also guarantees exact results. The corresponding data types are named real_point, real_segment, ...

All two-dimensional object types defined in this section support the following operations:

Equality and Identity Tests

bool identical(object p, object q) Test for identity.
bool p = = q Test for equality.
bool p! = q Test for inequality.

I/O Operators

ostream& ostream& O < < object x writes the object x to output stream O.
istream& istream& I > > object& x reads an object from input stream I into variable x.



Subsections
next up previous contents index
Next: Points ( point ) Up: Version 6.6 The LEDA Previous: Dijkstra(flexible) ( GIT_DIJKSTRA )   Contents   Index