Laura Creighton <l...@openend.se>: > Von Neumann recommended against floating-point numbers for the 1951 > IAS machine, arguing that fixed-point arithmetic is preferable. I > agree, but, if John von Neumann couldn't win that argument, then there > is no way on earth I could. So, if floating point is going in, at > least we should represent them differently.
Your problem is not fixed-point vs floating-point but related to the radix. Base-10 floating-point would be perfect for you and base-2 fixed-point would demonstrate even worse rounding errors. > But, hell, I write accounting and bookkeeping systems. Ah, I see. In 1951, decimal numbers would have done little good in the UK with the pound divided into 20 shillings and the shilling into 12 pence. Maybe a "Babylonian" module would have been perfect. Marko -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list