JuliaDiff / JuliaDiff/ForwardDiff.jl

NaN partials and comparison

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Dominant language
Julia
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Description

Some operations generate Dual with NaN partials, and I'm not sure comparison operators are defined consistently for them...

julia> xs = Dual(0.0,NaN)

# it's not zero,
julia> iszero(xs)
false
# no, definitely not zero,
julia> xs ≈ 0
false

# it's a regular finite number:
julia> isnan(xs)
false
julia> isfinite(xs)
true

# moreover, it's a positive number
julia> xs > 0
true

# but adding this positive number, or multiplying it by anything still gives the same number back:
julia> xs + xs === xs
true
julia> xs * 1e100 === xs
true
# these are the defining properties of a zero
# shouldn't it be considered a zero really?

Intuitively I would say that the most natural thing is to compare equal to zero, but maybe there are other self-consistent choices as well.

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Research direction

Start by reproducing the Julia examples in the issue and inspect the Dual comparison, zero, NaN, and finiteness behavior. Done means agreeing on a consistent treatment of Dual values with NaN partials and adding tests for the selected semantics; no source files or existing tests are named.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
julia
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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