2 Sep
2006
2 Sep
'06
10:10 p.m.
on 9/3/2006 at 12:39 AM der Mouse wrote:
Because it *is*. It differs from your other example
(which I cut) in
that the point can float over a much wider range, and it stores only
some small (compared to the size of that range) number of digits where
the point floats to.
I know I'm splitting hairs, but a cheap 4-banger calculator displays
numbers in floating point. A more expensive "scientific calculator"
displays in "scientific notation". It used to be that commercial business
types were paranoid about scientific notation and one HAD to implement
floating point the way I described.
The term for what everyone calls "floating point" is really "scientific
notation". In fact, outside of a rather narrow range, it's displayed as
such; e.g. x.xxxxEyy. Dig up any high-school science text where the
notion of scientific notation is introduced--it's never called "floating
point".
The distinction is small, but it's there.
Cheers,
Chuck