Re: SI Units Solicitation - Upgrade from comments

[William A Whitaker <whitaker@erols.com>]

Robert Dewar wrote:
> 
> <<For the P1446 standard, it is important that it be concrete and allow
> only
> the use of the numeric type Real, defined elsewhere.>>
> 
> I guess this is really a complaint at the P1446 standard (which I do not
> have a copy of), but I really dislike the use of the term Real, as opposed
> to Float, in programming languages. It just serves to feed confusion of the
> kind that has been so evident in the separate thread on guidelines for use
> of floating-point arithmetic.

For this applications standard, the user is restricted to a single
15-digit floating type.  It must be a subtype of the appropriate
implementation type (rather than "is digits 15") since this application
must smoothly interact with other applications.  The standard then
expends/derives/employs the type.  

The standard calls that type Real.  It cannot be called Float.  In most
compilers it is probably a subtype of Long_Float, but you cannot count
on that.  I would be delighted to consider another term, if it can be
generally agreed upon.  (I do not believe that the users would be happy
with a multisyballic name, like AdaTPD_Float, or even Float_15).  So far
the only one that has won acceptance (besides Float) is "Real".

Whitaker