I don't find it to be obscure, especially if it would work for all situations. However, apparently it doesn't always work (see Chris' post).

I think the best method would be to catch the overflow when it happens, and avoid the problem altogether.

>
>Yes, I read about this solution earlier in the thread. This is rather obscure, don't you think? I would prefer a "cleaner" approach, even if would involve extra coding... If only we could express overfow as a constant, like NaN...
>
>bye