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From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Subject: Re: floating point comparison
Date: 1997/07/30
Message-ID: <dewar.870304869@merv>#1/1
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Organization: New York University
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 comp.lang.ada,sci.math.num-analysis,comp.software-eng,comp.theory,sci.math
Date: 1997-07-30T00:00:00+00:00
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iMatthew Heaney quotes the AQ&S with respect to its advice on comparing
floating-point numbers.

Please don't quote this section, it contains a fair bit of embarassing
nonsense.

As for when it makes sense to compare floating-point values for equality,
that is a matter for the programmer to understand. Floating-point arithmetic
on modern IEEE machines is not some kind of approximate hocus-pocus, it
is a well defined arithmetic systenm, with well defined, well behaved
results, in which equality has a perfectly reasonable meaning.