Xref: utzoo comp.os.vms:13833 comp.lang.pascal:1754
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!purdue!iuvax!bsu-cs!mithomas
From: mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Michael Thomas Niehaus)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms,comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: VAX Pascal writeln on real numbers
Keywords: pascal writeln rounding
Message-ID: <6953@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
Date: 26 Apr 89 23:25:52 GMT
References: <2744@cps3xx.UUCP>
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, IN, USA
Lines: 22

In article <2744@cps3xx.UUCP>, rang@cpsin3.cps.msu.edu (Anton Rang) writes:
> I noticed that the rounding on small numbers done by writeln on VAX
> Pascal has a counter-intuitive (to me) result:
> 
> 	writeln(-0.000001:6:4);
> 
> 	 ==>  "0.0000"

It's been a while since I have tried anything like this, but it seems to
me that Pascal cannot display the sign since the field is not wide enough.
What you happen if you would try to display the same thing using a field
that was 7 characters wide, still with 4 decimal places?  I'd try it myself
but I am using our UNIX system right now and soon I need to log onto our
IBM 3083 to work on a COBOL project (bleh).

-Michael


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