Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!orstcs!ruffwork
From: ruffwork@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU (Ritchey Ruff)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: REAL Problem with floats
Message-ID: <2665@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 15 Feb 88 15:28:25 GMT
References: <2342@russell.STANFORD.EDU> <22979@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: ruffwork@CS.ORST.EDU (Ritchey Ruff)
Organization: Oregon State University - CS - Corvallis, Oregon
Lines: 32

You think you have floating problems, try this one out.  If you
have a Sequent running Kyoto Common Lisp just TRY typing 
in the number 0.01131678 and see what happens...

	>0.01131678
	
	Error: Floating-point overflow.
	Error signalled by READ.
	
	Broken at READ.  Type :H for Help.
	>>:q
	
	Top level.
	>0.01131679
	0.01131679
	
	>0.01131677
	0.01131677
	
	>0.011316781
	0.011316781

Now put this number in the middle of a 400k data file that's a list 
of about 10,000 floating point numbers and try to find out why 
the file does not load ;-)

arn't bugs in the underlying language fun ?

--ritchey ruff		ruffwork@cs.orst.edu -or- ...!hp-pcd!orstcs!ruffwork

Hofsteader's law: It will always take longer then you expect, 
	even when taking into account Hofsteader's law.