4 ms·
Sorry, by bignum I didn't mean "big numbers", I meant arbitrary-precision, i.e. 1/3 instead of 0.333333333, is this what you mean? I don't see how you get aroun
by makmanalp 9y ago
Sorry, by bignum I didn't mean "big numbers", I meant arbitrary-precision, i.e. 1/3 instead of 0.333333333, is this what you mean? I don't see how you get around stuff like many divisions or nth roots. You'd lose precision during the calculation operation, right? Whether you format it at the end has little bearing, since it'll be garbage by that time.
- pjc50 9y agoYou can just as easily lose precision in FP arithmetic if you're not careful. But for engineering purposes fixed point works quite well because having arithmetic much more precise than manufacturing tolerance is no use. Fixed point was good enough to go to the moon: https://www.netjeff.com/humor/item.cgi?file=ApolloComputer https://www.netjeff.com/humor/item.cgi?file=ApolloComputer
- makmanalp 9y agoAND core-rope memory. Wow. Thank you for this.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- coldtea 9y ago>I meant arbitrary-precision, i.e. 1/3 instead of 0.333333333, is this what you mean? No, more like having in mind the precision you want and multiplying with that (scaling your number, so to speak). But that's for fixed precision -- it just gives you access to decimal values. (You could emulate arbitrary precision in software too, but it would be way slower). >You'd lose precision during the calculation operation, right? Yes, but that's the case with FP too. You can't just use floats for financial calculations for example.