Pyquil converts real gate parameter to complex.

[bramathon]

This code snippet shows that the real parameter value provided (pi) is converted to a complex value (3.141592653589793+0j).

from numpy import pi
import pyquil
from pyquil.quil import Program
from pyquil.quilbase import Gate

print("Pyquil Version: " + pyquil.__version__)

program = Program()
program += Gate("RX", params=[pi], qubits=[0])

program.instructions[0].params[0]

Prior to pyquil 4 this would not happen.

I'm not sure if this is a bug, or intentional behaviour. However, I have difficulty understanding why this would be intentional as may expressions are defined only on the reals. Besides that, it doesn't seem right for pyquil to change the type of the value I provide.

[MarquessV]

This has to do with how quil-rs stores parameters. Currently, it upcasts everything to a complex number since it is sufficient for representing all number types. I can look into expanding this to include integer and floating point types. Created a tracking quil-rs issue.