Float bug toolkit: what the hash is this?

Christopher Oliver oliver at fritz.co.traverse.com
Thu Feb 19 17:55:58 UTC 1998


> Why do we need to consider Float's as being exact, anway?  If we
> think of Float's as representing a range of values, which is how you
> should usually be thinking when you compute with them anyway, then you
> get easy answers to all these problems.  <>= still make sense between
> two floats.  A Float should not be = to any Integer or Fraction, just
> like a Dictionary is ~= to any integer.

Thanks.  I think this is what David was hinting at, and it's indeed
what I was trying to get at in my amateurish way.  Given that the
problem arises out of the use of hash on floats, I find myself asking
if there are really any reasons to hash floats since this implies
a equality search for an unknown float in some table.  We're getting
precariously close to what McCarthy might have called pornographic
programming.

-- 
Christopher Oliver                     Traverse Communications
Systems Coordinator                    223 Grandview Pkwy, Suite 108
oliver at traverse.com                    Traverse City, Michigan, 49684
   (define magic (lambda (f) (lambda (x) x)))
   (define (more-magic n) (lambda (f) (lambda (x) (f ((n f) x)))))





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