[Vm-dev] [commit][3152] Make sure to compile the SmallFloat64 primitives.

[Bert Freudenberg]

> On 28.11.2014, at 02:17, Andres Valloud <avalloud at smalltalk.comcastbiz.net> wrote:
> 
> I'd rather this didn't happen... now we will always have to remember that "float32" is really what everybody else calls "float", "float64" is really what everybody else calls "double", and "float80" is... who knows... maybe the x87 extended double...
> 
> It is a "double", what's the problem with calling it a "double"?

It's called "double" in C, not universally. Which doesn't tell you anything unless you know that it might refer to what the IEEE standard calls "double precision". It also defines the 32 bit format as "single precision", so you might conclude C would call that "single", right? Nope.

All of these are floating point numbers, so calling them Float makes sense. And giving the number of bits is precise and allows extending to other widths easily.

There are programming languages with naming schemes more sensible than C has. E.g. Python has only "float" (which is 64bits) but NumPy defines "float32" and "float64". Same goes for Java and JavaScript, or more recently, Go. Naming low-level types by their bit width is well-established.

- Bert -

> 
> On 11/26/14 14:42 , Eliot Miranda wrote:
>> No.  Bert suggested (IIRC) ImmediateFloat64 and BoxedFloat64 and I went
>> with SmallFloat64 and BoxedFloat64 for two reasons.  SmallFloat64
>> because I like the symmetry with SmallInteger, and because this name
>> scheme gracefully admits SmallFloat32, BoxedFloat32 and BoxedFloat80 if
>> ever there was the energy to add them.

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