3.2*2 is 9.6 ... or maybe it isn't?

[Robert Kern]

On 2009-06-26 02:17, Ulrich Eckhardt wrote:
> Robert Kern wrote:
>> I wish people would stop representing decimal floating point arithmetic as
>> "more accurate" than binary floating point arithmetic.
>
> Those that failed, learned. You only see those that haven't learnt yet.
>
> Dialog between two teachers:
> T1: Oh those pupils, I told them hundred times! when will they learn?
> T2: They did, but there's always new pupils.

Unfortunately, I keep seeing people who claim to be old hands at floating point 
making these unlearned remarks. I have no issue with neophytes like the OP 
expecting different results and asking questions. It is those who answer them 
with an air of authority that need to take a greater responsibility for knowing 
what they are talking about. I lament the teachers, not the pupils.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco