Long-float variant giving more precision to numerical computations.
Subject: Long-float variant giving more precision to numerical computations.
From: Douglas Crosher
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:54:06 +1100
Stavros Macrakis wrote:
> On Feb 6, 2008 8:38 AM, Douglas Crosher <dtc-maxima at scieneer.com
> <mailto:dtc-maxima at scieneer.com>> wrote:
>
> A variant of Maxima 5.14.0cvs is available that replaces the use of
> the Common Lisp 'double-float type with the 'long-float type for
> Maxima floating point numbers.
...
> I'm not sure what you mean by 'integrated'. If there is a compile-time
> switch that chooses between double-float and long-float to implement
> Maxima float, with the default being double-float, that would be useful
> for experimentation moving forward. If this is a runtime choice (some
> numbers are floats, some long floats), what is the interface?
The current changes replace usage of double-float with long-floats - its a
lot of source code changes. Using the 'flonum type rather than double-float
and replacing all double-float numbers with the general form using E would
make it easier to support either double-float or long-float and it may even
be possible to use the CMUCL double-double float.
Regards
Douglas Crosher