Income Taxes - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified	9 Months Ended
	Jul. 27, 2012	Jul. 29, 2011
Income Taxes [Line Items]
Income tax rate	16.60%	16.40%
Income tax rate after the goodwill impairment charge	28.60%
Discrete tax benefits	$ 7.2	$ 11.0
Discrete tax benefit due to change in tax laws		3.3
Discrete tax benefit as a result of reconciling prior year's income tax return to U.S.income tax provision	1.7
Discrete tax benefits associated with net operating losses of an acquired subsidiary		5.6
Tax benefits associated with research and development tax credits, capital and operating losses	5.6
Due to a change in French tax laws associated with the holding company structure and the financing of the Souriau acquisition
Income Taxes [Line Items]
Discrete tax benefit due to change in tax laws	2.3
Reduction of net deferred tax liabilities as a result of the enactment of tax laws reducing the U.K. statutory income tax rate.
Income Taxes [Line Items]
Discrete tax benefit due to change in tax laws	$ 2.9	$ 3.2