a has a greater angle with the positive x-axis than b
Using the obvious algorithm of simply computing the angle is not robust, since the angle calculation is obviously susceptible to roundoff. A robust algorithm is: - first compare the quadrant. If the quadrants are different, it it trivial to determine which vector is "greater". - if the vectors lie in the same quadrant, the computeOrientation function can be used to decide the relative orientation of the vectors.