Toward an API for the real numbers
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10-07-2020, 05:40 PM
Post: #7
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RE: Toward an API for the real numbers
(10-07-2020 01:35 PM)KeithB Wrote: but AFAIK, Excel does not use it. Yes, sure Excel uses doubles. MS early on advertised Excel as the fastest spreadsheet software for IBM PC and hence the battle was for speed rather than "decimal accuracy" of BCD when used in financial calculations. I should have been a bit more careful by stating "some of the early spreadsheet software used BCD". A quick demo in Excel: Enter 1.01 in cell A1 Enter =A1+0.001 in cell A2 Copy cell A2 to cells A3-A100 Format column A to 14 decimal places Cells A47 to A100 show 1.05599999999999 to 1.10899999999999 It's sad that VisiCalc is largely forgotten as the first spreadsheet invention. Everything that came after is an incremental improvement. VisiCalc was implemented by programmers that were familiar with COBOL. For "business computing reasons", COBOL used packet BCD. "I count on old friends" -- HP 71B,Prime|Ti VOY200,Nspire CXII CAS|Casio fx-CG50...|Sharp PC-G850,E500,2500,1500,14xx,13xx,12xx... |
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Messages In This Thread |
Toward an API for the real numbers - Bill Duncan - 10-05-2020, 01:19 AM
RE: Toward an API for the real numbers - robve - 10-05-2020, 03:13 AM
RE: Toward an API for the real numbers - Wes Loewer - 10-05-2020, 07:24 PM
RE: Toward an API for the real numbers - robve - 10-06-2020, 01:16 AM
RE: Toward an API for the real numbers - KeithB - 10-05-2020, 04:36 PM
RE: Toward an API for the real numbers - KeithB - 10-07-2020, 01:35 PM
RE: Toward an API for the real numbers - robve - 10-07-2020 05:40 PM
RE: Toward an API for the real numbers - Wes Loewer - 10-07-2020, 08:58 PM
RE: Toward an API for the real numbers - Paul Dale - 10-08-2020, 03:26 AM
RE: Toward an API for the real numbers - Albert Chan - 10-08-2020, 01:07 PM
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