In a message dated 12/9/99 5:34:25 AM Pacific Standard Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:
> people usually use more bytes because
> they want more precision, not more range. Thus, a DOUBLE PRECISION type
> variable with more mantissa would in some cases be an attractive
> alternative to quadruple precision,
But they don't want to take all the precautions required to avoid loss of
precision due to the abrupt underflows of differences, which become much more
frequent. Presumably this was the reason for the introduction of G_FLOAT,
which behaves nearly the same as IEEE double.
Tim
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