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From: "Robert I. Eachus" <eachus@mitre.org>
Subject: Re: Array of Variant Records Question...
Date: 1999/09/23
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Robert Dewar wrote:
  
> You mean "real" instead of "floating-point", please do not use
> floating-point to mean the real numbers of mathematics, they
> are quite different. The term floating-point should be reserved
> to computer number systems, which are not in any sense
> non-ideal. They have well defined semantics which just happen
> to be different from those of real arithmetic.
  
> Since we never have real arithmetic on computers, talking about
> this case is a red herring that has nothing to do with anything
> we are interested in here.
 
    Hmmm.  This is only about terminology, and I'll have to stick with
mine in this case.  There are "real" random generators, but that term is
usually
reserved for analog devices which output a voltage signal.  Quite
popular in
white noise generators.  As for the number model you are quite correct
that there is a major difference between real numbers and floating-point
numbers.  It is just that I was talking about RNGs not numbers.

-- 

                                        Robert I. Eachus

with Standard_Disclaimer;
use  Standard_Disclaimer;
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