As a side note, Splus makes sin(x) NA, with a warning, for
abs(x)>1.6*2^48 (about
4.51e+14) because more than half the digits are incorrect in sin(x)
for such x. E.g.,
in R we get:
> options(digits=16)
> library(Rmpfr)
> sin(4.6e14)
[1] -0.792253849684354
> sin(mpfr(4.6e14, precBits=500))
1 'mpfr
R and the S language that it is based on has evolved as much as it has
been designed, so there are often inconsistencies due similar
functionality evolving from different paths. In some cases these
inconsistencies are resolved, but generally only once someone notices
and care enough to do somethin
