"so" <s...@so.do> wrote in message news:op.vidgxic47dt...@so-pc... >> Float (short for "floating point"): The decimal point can "float" around >> as >> the value changes (not a literal use of "float", but there's nothing >> wrong >> with metaphoric uses of words, even in ordinary speech). This type is >> named >> in contrast to the fixed-point arithmetic that was often used as an >> old-school optimization (where the decimal point was always at a fixed >> location, for example, the high 16-bits may have been the whole-number >> part, >> and the low 16-bits may have been the decimal part). >> >> Double: This one's easy: It's double the size of a float. >> > > If you throw "2.7f" on a water, does it float or you need to multiply with > pi first?
Like I said, "metaphor". By contrast there's no basis for a metaphor between "enumeration" and manifest constants. > Why don't we change double to hmm... doubleTheSizeOfFloat? Lets test it! > Please don't go using strawmen. No one ever said anything about abbreviations being bad.