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From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Floating Point
Message-ID: <1638.UUL1.3#5129@willett.pgh.pa.us>
Date: 30 Aug 90 03:01:30 GMT
Organization: String, Scotch tape, and Paperclips.  (in Pgh, PA)
Lines: 33

Category 10,  Topic 8
Message 39        Wed Aug 29, 1990
R.BERKEY [Robert]            at 04:12 PDT
 
  Mitch Bradley writes:

 > Suppose that we have a function FSTKCELLS

 > FSTKCELLS  ( n -- ncells )
 >  ncells is the number of data stack items occupied
 >  by a n floating point numbers.

 > If there is a separate floating point stack, FSTKCELLS would be
 > DROP 0.  Otherwise, it might be NOOP or 2* or 4* or whatever is
 > correct, considering the relative sizes of integers and floating
 > point numbers.

 > Given this function, mixed stack operations can be portably
 > expressed as a (usually trivial) calculation involving FSTKCELLS and
 > PICK .

Of course, PICK is no longer in the required word set, and won't be available
on all systems.

My understanding is that a floating-point number represents a "plug" on the
data stack.  BASIS13 won't have a specification for the size of a floating-
point value on the data stack.  This means that floating-point values on the
data stack could have varying sizes.  Thus, with BASIS13, there is no portable
way of getting around a floating-point value on the data stack.

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