That is what I was thinking the whole article. Seem like not only would that be simpler it would also be faster. I assume that there is a reason for employing t

That is what I was thinking the whole article. Seem like not only would that be simpler it would also be faster. I assume that there is a reason for employing this, but I couldn't find it. Looking at the paper A Comparison of Method For accurate Summation by McNamee[1], double precision beats Kahan summation, both in speed and reduction in errors. Moving to double precision of course only holds if your variables were previously only single precision. If your variables are already double precision, I could see the reason for implementing more exotic methods. [1] http://www.sigsam.org/bulletin/articles/147/sumnums.pdf http://www.sigsam.org/bulletin/articles/147/sumnums.pdf