[Python-Dev] Numerical robustness, IEEE etc.

[Nick Coghlan]

Michael Hudson wrote:
> I get the impression that you would like to see floatobject.c
> rewritten to make little or no use of the FPU, is that right?  Also,
> you seem to have an alternate model for floating point calculations in
> mind, but seem very reluctant to actually explain what this is.
> 
> I think you should probably write a PEP.

I suggest using PEP 327 as a starting point, though. A few of the issues 
Cowlishaw talks about in the General Decimal Arithmetic spec are specific to 
hardware implementations, sure, but it doesn't appear to involve anything 
numerically insane (granted, they've added exp, ln and log10 to the spec since 
PEP 327 was implemented. . .).

The only downside I know of when it comes to trying to do serious number 
crunching with the current decimal implementation is the loss of raw speed 
relative to hardware floating point, and Mateusz is working on improving that 
situation.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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