In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Scott David Daniels <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: |> Nick Maclaren wrote: (of fixed point) |> > .... I am (just) old enough to remember when it was used for |> > numeric work, and to have used it for that myself, but not old enough |> > to have done any numeric work using fixed-point hardware. |> |> You are using fixed point hardware today. Fixed point tracked the |> "decimal point" (or "binary point" or whatever) in the mind of the |> programmer, not in the state of the hardware. There never was |> "fixed point hardware," it was simply a way of viewing the results |> of the gates of the same hardware we use today.
Er, no. Analogue hardware never was fixed-point, and I have used that :-) More relevantly, you are using a very parochial and unusual interpretation of the word 'hardware'. In normal usage, it includes everything below the instruct set specification (now often called the ABI). And I can assure you that there is a considerable difference between the hardware that provides a floating-point interface at the ABI and that which provides a fixed-point interface. Regards, Nick Maclaren. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
