[Python-Dev] Re: PEP239 (Rational Numbers) Reference Implementation and new issues

[David Abrahams]

From: "Andrew Koenig" <ark@research.att.com>


> Oren> Any calculation involving a floating point number should taint
> Oren> the result with inexactitude and yield a floating point result.
>
> Even comparisons?

Well, comparisons are tainted already in some sense, because you don't know
how much error there is in any given number.

FWIW, Boost just accepted an interval arithmetic library which does
computation with a closed range of floating point numbers, making it
possible to know just how fuzzy any given computation is.


-----------------------------------------------------------
           David Abrahams * Boost Consulting
dave@boost-consulting.com * http://www.boost-consulting.com