On Thu, 2002-09-19 at 16:06, Richard Fateman wrote:
> It is entirely possible that the 68020 etc uses "extended"
> precision (using 64 bit fractions instead of 53 bits) for
> floating point registers.
Yes. In days long gone I used to program 68K Macintoshes. I remember
there was always something funny about the way floating-point precision
worked there, but I don't remember any of the details.
> It would be surprising though if
> this explained how answers differed in the last 8 decimal places.
Yes. 8 decimal places is a lot.
It would be nice if someone could come up with a small sequence of
floating-point operations that resulted in different answers on the two
platforms.
> Regarding wiki, I may have missed its recent evolution,
> but the idea of an entirely "democratic" encyclopedia in
> which anyone can write about anything seems to me to have distinct
> disadvantages for readers who want some authoritative
> information.
As I said, I haven't really used one. I, too, find the ideal less than,
well, ideal. However, in practice, I think they usually amount to a FAQ
that is easy to edit.
--Jim