[Python-Dev] Re: Revamping Python's Numeric Model

[Greg Ewing]

"Martin v. Loewis" <martin@loewis.home.cs.tu-berlin.de>:

> To computer numerics fanatics, it is surprising that 1.0 is inexact,
> since the common representations of floating point numbers are well
> capable of representing it exactly.

I suppose in principle one could meticulously keep track
of which floating point numbers in a calculation were
exact and which weren't. But you'd lose the property that
any arithmetic operation on exact operands produces an
exact result.

Also, it would be very tedious and inefficient to have
to keep track of exactness so exactly!

Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, +--------------------------------------+
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