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From: westley%planck.uucp@acsu.buffalo.edu (Terry J. Westley)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: determining the next model number >= any arbitrary number
Message-ID: <1991Jan2.152418.11783@planck.uucp>
Date: 2 Jan 91 15:24:18 GMT
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Organization: Calspan Advanced Technology Center, Buffalo, NY
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List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Given the following:

	type PERCENTAGE is digits 6 range 0.0..110.0;

Since 100.0 cannot be exactly expressed in a binary floating point
representation (available on most modern machines), then the following
must yield a model number less than or greater than 100.0, never exactly
100.0.

	Complete : PERCENTAGE := 100.0;

I don't believe the RM says anything about which an implementation must
pick.

So, how can I guarantee that this assignment will always yield a value
greater than or equal to 100.0?

Maybe:

	Complete : PERCENTAGE := 100.0 + PERCENTAGE'small;

But, since 'small is so "small," I can't depend on this for any
arbitrary assignment, especially when the assigned value is
significantly larger than 'small.

What I really want is something more like the following:

	Complete : PERCENTAGE := 100.0 + PERCENTAGE'epsilon(100.0);

if only epsilon were defined to accept a parameter instead of simply
returning the size of the model number interval around 1.0.

Any ideas on how can this could be done?

--
-- 
Terry J. Westley
Arvin/Calspan Advanced Technology Center
P.O. Box 400, Buffalo, NY 14225
westley%planck.uucp@acsu.buffalo.edu