4 ms·
> where integer values are not acceptable Er why not
by tantalor 4y ago
> where integer values are not acceptable
Er why not
- vlovich123 4y agoAre you asking why there’s floating point in general? Or why Tex needed floating point to represent layout? For the latter likely because you have to do layout. You could try defining a fundamental page unit but some layout decisions will likely still put you into fractional space where you need to preserve the fractions to get a correct result.
- tantalor 4y agoAh I misunderstood. Thought it was "integers not allowed" which would be strange. Actually it is "integers not sufficient"
- proto_lambda 4y agoQm.n notation is for fixed point numbers, not floating point. As OP said, floating point was not a viable option at the time.
- zelphirkalt 4y agoSo why not work with fractions instead? Then be problem becomes to store big or arbitrary sized integers.
- projektfu 4y agoThey are effectively fractions. Everything is represented to the nearest 1/65536. This is equivalent to arbitrary fractions with 16-bit numerators and denominators.
- zelphirkalt 4y agoI think my question is rather, "Why not use a representation as a fraction?" then. Technically every number inside a computer, which is not merely symbols interpreted outside of the computer, is a fraction, because of limited precision of finite memory. I guess it is all about the representation then. So the question becomes one of why one representation is better and why not use a fraction representation of 2 integers instead.
- projektfu 4y agoWell, scaled fixed point representation lets you use integer operations. With two separate memory locations, you'd have to manage things like borrow and carry yourself.