From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 107079,c7637cfdf68e766 X-Google-Attributes: gid107079,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,c7637cfdf68e766 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,c7637cfdf68e766 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: f8362,c7637cfdf68e766 X-Google-Attributes: gidf8362,public X-Google-Thread: 109d8a,c7637cfdf68e766 X-Google-Attributes: gid109d8a,public From: "W. Wesley Groleau x4923" Subject: Re: floating point comparison Date: 1997/08/04 Message-ID: <33E61497.33E2@pseserv3.fw.hac.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 262373479 Sender: usenet@most.fw.hac.com (News Administration) X-Nntp-Posting-Host: sparc02 References: <33DF6F43.6EEA4806@digicomp.com> <5rqehs$g1r$1@odin.cc.pdx.edu> <33E11967.4A30@nr.net> <33E214C3.311C@pseserv3.fw.hac.com> Organization: Hughes Defense Communications Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,sci.math.num-analysis,comp.software-eng,comp.theory,sci.math Date: 1997-08-04T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: > It would not be appropriate for an general-purpose style guide to > mandate "take an introductory course in numerical analysis.">> > > Of *course* it is appropriate for AQ&S to mandate this level of > knowledge. I am dubious as to whether it is possible to produce > a set of guidelines for fpt usage in Ada that are useful to > knowlegdable professionals (the audience at which AQ&S is aimed), > but for sure trying to tell people who know nothing about numerical > analysis how to use fpt is a lost cause. How about a compromise. Something like * Use numerical analysis to determine appropriate algorithms when using floating point in I understand floating point well enough to compute with pencil & paper the correct bit pattern for Pi (3.14159.....) in a VAX D_FLOAT, but I have never seen IEEE 754. Yet I almost always treat floats "as if" they were "true" real numbers--and I have NEVER had a bug traced to this "mistake". I've worked with a lot of decent programmers whose degrees are in English, History, EE, ME, .... and most of them could say the same. I KNOW some of my colleagues have no clue how floating point numbers are represented, yet still manage to produce working code. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wes Groleau, Hughes Defense Communications, Fort Wayne, IN USA Senior Software Engineer - AFATDS Tool-smith Wanna-be wwgrol AT pseserv3.fw.hac.com Don't send advertisements to this domain unless asked! All disk space on fw.hac.com hosts belongs to either Hughes Defense Communications or the United States government. Using email to store YOUR advertising on them is trespassing! ----------------------------------------------------------------------