Lie Ryan wrote:
On Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:15:53 -0500, Steve Holden wrote:
Is anyone aware of any implementations that use other than 64-bit floating-point? I'd be particularly interested in any that use greater precision than the usual 56-bit mantissa. Do modern 64-bit systems implement anything wider than the normal double?
regards Steve
Why don't we create a DecimalFloat datatype which is a variable-width floating point number. Decimal is variable precision fixed-point number, while the plain ol' float would be system dependent floating point.
Because it's a large amount of work? For a limited return ... the implementation is bound to be hugely slow compared with hardware floating point, and as Martin already pointed out gmpy provides higher-precision arithmetic where required, and the Decimal module provides arbitrary-range fixed-point arithmetic. regards Steve -- Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/