RFR: [type-classes] JDK-8376823: Add prototype polynomial class [v3]

[Joe Darcy]

On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 23:14:35 GMT, Joe Darcy <darcy at openjdk.org> wrote:

> > Just curious, are we planning to experience with a more generic polynomial that takes an eligible numerical type, like ones that take float or textbook imaginary?
> 
> Yes, long-term that is a possibility -- that was part of the motivation for naming the class "PolynomialDouble" rather than just "Polynomial." Conceptually, `Polynomial<N extends Numeric>` would make sense, perhaps with some mild side-conditions on Numerics.

A bit more detail, the add/subtract operations on a polynomial use the add/subtract/negate operations on the type of the coefficient.  Polynomial multiply uses add/subtract/negate/multiply on the type of the coefficient.

Therefore, hypothetically `instantiating Polynomial<SomeRing>` would work fine for polynomial add, subtract, and multiply. (An implementation of "`Polynomial<double>`" more sophisticated than this prototype would want to use a more accurate summation technique to compute the coefficients of a polynomial product.)

For polynomial division, looks like the coefficients to be a field (or field like) so that dividing the coefficient values yields a single value that can be used for more computations.

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PR Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/valhalla/pull/2004#issuecomment-3837391860