Re: small example, using complex variables in Ada

[Brian Drummond <brian_drummond@btconnect.com>]

On Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:48:37 +0200, "J-P. Rosen" <rosen@adalog.fr> wrote:

>Yannick Duch�ne (Hibou57) a �crit :
>> Le Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:27:38 +0200, J-P. Rosen <rosen@adalog.fr> a �crit:
>>> For output, rounding is specified in the standard. And BTW, the standard
>>> does not specify IEEE (fortunately, it did not make the same mistake as
>>> Java!).
>> Which mistake ? (not to disagree, just to understand)
...
>There is an interesting paper on the internet about why Java failed on
>numerics. Sorry, I don't have the exact reference at hand, but it should
>be easy to find.

At a wild guess, easy to find for anyone who's heard of Prof Kahan.

But just in case... I presume you mean
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~wkahan/JAVAhurt.pdf

On the other hand, the abstract starts:
"Java�s floating-point arithmetic is blighted by five gratuitous mistakes:"

So perhaps the original question "which mistake?" still stands; 
nos 3) and 4) look particularly bad.

- Brian