I don't see any reason to claim that explicit-precision floating-point is more complex, just different. Yes, change is uncomfortable and takes effort, but it do

I don't see any reason to claim that explicit-precision floating-point is more complex, just different. Yes, change is uncomfortable and takes effort, but it does necessarily mean the new way is inherently more complicated. I worry about objections based on "that's not what we are taught in school." I think that what we teach can (and should) be improved if need be, and not used as a motivation to deny criticism of established dogma. I am not sure if I fully understand your example, but I don't see any problem with it. Using basic significant figure rules, this is (with an additional step for clarity): x: 5e0 y = x - 1: 4e0 z1 = x - y: 1e0 z = 1/1e0 z2 = 1e0 The answer seems to simply be 1+-1. "Significant Figures" are a simplification of precision where the precision is an integer that represents the total digits of the least precise measurement. A more accurate way is to represent precision as standard deviation, then calculate the precision of the result with basic statistical techniques.