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From: mccaugh@s.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: fast arc tangent routine availa
Message-ID: <207600047@s.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 4 Oct 89 06:38:00 GMT
References: <32488@ism780c.isc.com>
Lines: 12
Nf-ID: #R:ism780c.isc.com:32488:s.cs.uiuc.edu:207600047:000:630
Nf-From: s.cs.uiuc.edu!mccaugh    Oct  4 01:38:00 1989


 I really don't mean to sound pedantic (after all, if I did mean to, I would
 go over to the numerical-analysis group to do so) but I fail to see the
 virtue of speed for only a few decimal places: it doesn't seem terribly
 profound to cough up the first few terms of a Taylor Series, factoring the
 powers to exploit Horner's Rule and exclaim: "well, here is such a fast
 ArcTan series it doesn't require a loop!" I.e., yes it's fast--but at the
 expense of what? ACCURACY. (But for all that, it may be the fastest 3-place
 ArcTan routine available: for that, I commend the author!)

 Scott McCaughrin
 (mccaugh@s.cs.uiuc.edu)