Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bagate!dsinc!unix.cis.pitt.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!orcenl!bengsig
From: bengsig@dk.oracle.com (Bjorn Engsig)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Log Library - How is it done in the library code?
Keywords: log, library, series expansion
Message-ID: <1294@dkunix9.dk.oracle.com>
Date: 13 Mar 91 09:39:49 GMT
References: <1991Mar11.022141.12068@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <1119@caslon.cs.arizona.edu>
Reply-To: bengsig@dk.oracle.com (Bjorn Engsig)
Organization: Oracle Denmark
Lines: 16

Sorry, this isn't C any longer, but it need clarification.

Article <1119@caslon.cs.arizona.edu> by dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave P. Schaumann) says:
|
|Trancendental functions are generally modeled with a Taylor-series expansion.
|(Check your favorite calculus books for what a Taylor series is,
Taylor-series are only of mathematical value.  As a computational tool, they
are absolutely worthless.
|and your
|favorite numerical analysis book on how to get the best (ie most accurate)
|results).
Which will tell you why you shouldn't use Taylor-series, and probably tell
the that Chebychev polynomails are among the best ones for a large number
of functions.
-- 
Bjorn Engsig, ORACLE Corporation, E-mail: bengsig@oracle.com, bengsig@oracle.nl