[Tutor] precision handling

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

On Sat, 2 Oct 2021 08:06:20 +1300, dn via Tutor <tutor at python.org>
declaimed the following:

>
>Not only do few institutions teach Numerical Programming these days, but
>I've noticed numbers of programmers 'coming through' who don't have
>knowledge of, or even a decent mental model of, how a CPU works - up to
>and including a failure to have anything more than an understanding of
>how a chart of binary and decimal numbers 'line up'.
>
	Whereas I recall (vaguely -- it has been near 45 years) an assignment
to implement single precision floating point +-*/ using 32-bit integer
operations (even though the campus mainframe had integer, float, and BCD
arithmetic modules -- the BCD board failed one term, which essentially
killed all COBOL courses until a replacement BCD unit could be obtained).


-- 
	Wulfraed                 Dennis Lee Bieber         AF6VN
	wlfraed at ix.netcom.com    http://wlfraed.microdiversity.freeddns.org/