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From: ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: C Floating point arithmetic
Message-ID: <4614@alice.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 23-Nov-85 11:16:59 EST
Article-I.D.: alice.4614
Posted: Sat Nov 23 11:16:59 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Nov-85 07:19:31 EST
References: <706@lasspvax.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 17

> In an inauspicious moment, K&R specified "All floating-point arithmetic
> in C is done in double precision" (pg 41).

> Two effects:

>	1) floats, as opposed to doubles, are costly and useless (except 
>	   when memory space is critical), and

>	2) I have to advise people with CPU-intense problems not to use C.

> Comments? Does everybody agree?

> garry wiegand

No -- on most machines, single-precision does not offer enough significance
for serious number-crunching, so people tend to use double-precision
anyway if they care about the results.