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=0.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f43e6,c7637cfdf68e766 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 109d8a,c7637cfdf68e766 X-Google-Attributes: gid109d8a,public X-Google-Thread: 107079,c7637cfdf68e766 X-Google-Attributes: gid107079,public X-Google-Thread: f8362,c7637cfdf68e766 X-Google-Attributes: gidf8362,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,c7637cfdf68e766 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: trebla@vex.net (Albert Y.C. Lai) Subject: Re: floating point comparison Date: 1997/08/09 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 263639767 Distribution: inet References: <33DF6F43.6EEA4806@digicomp.com> <5rqehs$g1r$1@odin.cc.pdx.edu> <33E11967.4A30@nr.net> <33E214C3.311C@pseserv3.fw.hac.com> <33E61497.33E2@pseserv3.fw.hac.com> <33E6D359.3EF4@imbi.uni-freiburg.de> <33E74A62.53E2@pseserv3.fw.hac.com> <33EA0049.2CDB@gsg.eds.com> <33EB29EE.446B@still3.chem.columbia.edu> Organization: Interlog Internet Services -Voice (416) 975-2655 -Data 515-1414 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,sci.math.num-analysis,comp.software-eng,comp.theory,sci.math Date: 1997-08-09T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <33EB29EE.446B@still3.chem.columbia.edu>, Peter Shenkin wrote: >Or assuming that anyone with a degree in English knows how to read >and write.... :-) Or that anyone capable of switching on an oven knows how to cook, that anyone knowing how to hold a knife also knows surgery, that anyone who knows a programming language also knows everything about problem solving with computers. Some programmers believe that careful analysis is not necessary in simple, obvious situations. This is correct, but I raise the question: how do you know that it is simple and obvious enough, unless someone carries out a careful analysis? Intuition is great only when it is rigorously justified. As for non-safety-critical applications, the prevailing attitude among programmers is that all bugs are fine, not to mention numerical bugs. Their sloppiness on correctness in general is the real reason behind their sloppiness on numerical analysis. Thus they replace logic with general-purpose programming style guides, thus they replace numerical analysis with general-purpose numerical style guides. To this I do not have much more to say, since they would whine about making a living and not wanting to invest in education and thinking; but I must remark that thieves become thieves also because they have to make a living. -- Albert Y.C. Lai trebla@vex.net http://www.vex.net/~trebla/ -- Albert Y.C. Lai trebla@vex.net http://www.vex.net/~trebla/