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V1ndaar | 2 years ago
In this case to get compiler help it's pretty much identical to Numbat. Annotating the "force" variables with a `Force` type. There's a few technicalities involved though. Normally the user is supposed to use explicit type annotations for variables. Quantities like `Force`, `Energy` etc. are mainly supported for function arguments (they are "concepts" in Nim lingo, a specific version of generics).
Technically you can abuse these concepts for type checking, by annotating with `Force`, e.g. `let force_sun: Force = ...`. That will correctly raise a CT error about mismatching units in this case. However, the code will /also/ not compile if you type `Energy` due to the underspecified type.
So what you're supposed to do is:
import unchained
let earth_mass = 5.972168e24.kg
let solar_mass = 1.9885e30.kg
let lunar_mass = 7.342e22.kg
let distance_sun = 1.AU # astronomical unit
let distance_moon = 384_400.km
let force_sun: N = G_Newton * earth_mass * solar_mass / distance_sun
let force_moon: N = G_Newton * earth_mass * lunar_mass / distance_moon
echo force_sun / force_moon
which will correctly raise a Error: type mismatch: got 'Joule' for '...' but expected 'Newton = Alias'
(or any other unit of force; note that if it was a non SI unit, e.g. `eV` for an energy, you'd need to explicitly convert the RHS expression into `eV` using `.to(eV)`. That will perform the CT check of whether the conversion is valid, and if so, hands you the value in `eV`. Implicit conversions to explicitly given types is not supported)So I think we more or less do the same things. :)
And just to clarify, I'm always happy to see more libraries / programs etc. that do units as types. But for the same reason you hadn't even heard about Unchained, is the reason I can't stop myself from mentioning it in such a context. :D (niche programming language + niche topic clearly doesn't help).
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