RE: [boost] Re: Floating Point comparisons

From: Fernando Cacciola (fcacciola_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-12-14 10:57:53

----- Original Message -----
From: Paul A. Bristow <boost_at_[hidden]>
To: <boost_at_[hidden]>
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2001 7:02 AM
Subject: RE: [boost] Re: Floating Point comparisons

> I have tried to read up reference 3 on the Boost Test Library: Floating
> Point Comparison.
>
> Knuth, D E, Vol III,
>
> in the hope that the jacket puff by Jonanthan Laventhol
>
> "It's always a pleasure when a problem is hard enough that you have to get
> the Knuths of the shelf.  I find that merely opening one has a very useful
> terrorising effect on computers."
>
> would work,
>
> but did not find anything in the index that looked relevant - only the
Quote
>
> "If you don't find it in the index look very carefully through the entire
> catalogue" - Consumers Guide, Sears, Roebuck & Co (1897)"
>
> Can you or Gennadiy give a more detailed reference please!
>
I recently found these papers on the web.
I have only scanned them, not actually read them, but I think they can help
us understand the issues about FP rounding.

"Rounding Near Zero", U. Kulisch.
"From Rounding Error Estimation to Automatic Correction with Automatic
Differentiation", P. Langlois.
"The Improbability of Probabilistic Error Analyses for numerical
computations", W. Kahan.
"Roundoff degrades an Idealized Cantilever", W. Kahan.

I loose track of were I got them, though.
If you and Gennadiy (or anyone else) want it I'll email them privately.
(I got them from the public domain so I figure that it is OK to give them
away).

Fernando Cacciola
Sierra s.r.l.
fcacciola_at_[hidden]
www.gosierra.com