On Tue, 18 Dec 2018 17:34:29 -0500 Dennis Clarke <dcla...@blastwave.org> wrote:
> some serious reading and experiments are needed to get a good > handle on why numerical computation is as much art as it is science. > If we wander into the problem without sufficient study and VERY > careful consideration then we are doomed to repeat the errors of the > past. I think perhaps you left out "Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers", by Richard Hamming. :-) But when you boil it down, the answer is there is no answer, is there? The best advice is to understand where things can go wrong, and stay away from them. The truth is that any system for representing numbers is forced to represent some numbers approximately. We think "pen and paper" and the good old decimal system is the gold standard, but what of ? ? Even bankers, ever counting pennies, approximate to compute interest and averages. Little known fact: sometimes they compute interest on the basis of a 360-day year. --jkl _______________________________________________ sqlite-users mailing list sqlite-users@mailinglists.sqlite.org http://mailinglists.sqlite.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users
