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Re: Avoiding roundoff errors in calculations?


roundoff errors
Rick Marshall wrote:

> there are always accuracy issues

Indeed.  Anyone reading this who hasn't been to the mat with actual 
numerical calculations on a computer really needs to know that getting 
it right is HARD and there are a million ways to do the obvious thing 
but get the wrong answer.  One of the great things about FORTRAN was 
that the math libraries were *very* sophisticated and tried to save the 
uninitiated from their own stupidity; and I speak as one whose stupidity 
triumphed over them and once calculated a spectacularly wrong result 
which got placed on the desk of a senior executive and had to be 
apologized for; I still shudder thinking of it.

-- 
Cheers, Tim Bray
         (ongoing fragmented essay: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/)



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