Re: problem with float

Jean-Marc Bourguet wrote, On 24/05/07 20:51:

<snip>

(*) Some are pushing for the use of decimal floating point, which would
solve this second problem but increase the previous one and also increase
the difficulty of the analysis needed to get precise estimations of the
rounding error. IBM just announced a processor with hardware support for
decimal floating point. The C commitee has in project a Technical report
describing extentions to handle them.

The proposal for decimal floating point is not intended to solve the general problems of floating point. To a large extent it is designed to solve the problems of financial software, where the algorithm is often defined in terms of how many decimal places you have to work to, what rounding you do etc. Having decimal floating point would allow the company that employs me to significantly simplify some code in the application that makes most of the companies money whilst also reducing the possibility of error.
--
Flash Gordon
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