Because even a very simple one like %3 goes on forever. Since you can't store infinite digits, how do you decide where to stop? This brings up precision issues which means you have retain and keep track of change in precision for every function use which becomes complicated and expensive.
This reminds me of the story in which all the knowledge in the world is purported to be represented by a point on the line segment [0,1]. To get this, 1) represent all the knowledge in the world with numeric values, 2) string these values all together to get one very long number, 3) put a decimal point in front of this number to get a fraction between 0 and 1, and 4) very carefully put a dot representing this fraction on the line segment. On 2/26/07, Dan Bron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>while it's relatively simple to make integers arbitrarily large, >floating point is a much more difficult proposition: I know, rationally, that this is true. But intuitively it's always struck a sour note. A floating point number is just an integer with a dot in the middle. Why is it such a different beast? -Dan PS: I once had a very heated philosophical argument with a professor on this very subject. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
-- Devon McCormick ^me^ at acm. org is my preferred e-mail ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
