[G4] 2+2=4.0000001?

[Amir 'CG' Caspi]

On Thu, 26 Feb 2004, CJ Scaminaci wrote:

> Should being the key word ;) An integer operation still would have done

I am assuming no "funny business" like what Mathematica does, i.e.
representing numbers using custom memory objects.  Then again, Mathematica
has essentially infinite precision, so... =)

> the job here. Whoever wrote the calculator program was lazy, and decided
> to float all the numbers. This kind of problem could have been avoided

Actually, I imagine that it was done this way to save memory and code.
Based purely on how *I* would write it, the calculator is written with
essentially two static registers - the number on the screen, and the
number in memory (which may also be the same as the number on the screen).
Therefore, when someone enters a number into the calculator, they are
essentially modifying the static register.  If you now have to insert code
that decides whether to use the integer or floating-point register, you
now have to modify *ALL* of your code so that it chooses which register to
operate on, etc.  This would make the code MUCH more cumbersome, more
likely to be buggy, and generally slower.  Using a float at all times is
actually the more elegant way, code-wise.

						--- Amir