[boost] Re: BCD and/or Fixed point decimal classes

From: Bill Seymour (bill-at-the-office_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-03-07 08:26:10

>
> I've tried to search the archive for references on discussions
> of Fixed point decimal and/or Binary Coded Decimal arbitrary
> precision libraries.
>
> Would there be any intrest in discussing and making a requirement
> description on such a library. I would be willing to implement
> such a library.
>

I'm working on that.  I submitted an idea for an interface
to Boost shortly before the last J16/WG21 meeting.  I haven't
had a lot of time to work on it lately; but I hope to have
a new version to submit next week.

I don't use BCD.  Internally, it's a couple of integer values.
One is the representation of unity (a constant that's always
an integral power of 10); and the other is an integral number
of "units in the last place" (ULPs).  The internal integer
type is int_least64_t if the C++ implementation has one;
otherwise it's just long, and not really suitable for
"high finance."

What I'm concerned most with is creating an interface that
would be suitable for standardization.  I'm less concerned
with making a library that's maximally useful on current
boxes; but if you'd like to work on the library and create
a BCD representation, I'd be happy for us to work together.
Keep in mind that this really needs to be a light-weight
class...it's an arithmetic type and so will likely be
copied by value a lot.

Maybe I can upload just the documentation later today
or tomorrow.  I'm not ready to show anybody the code
yet...I don't want folks to know how stupid I am.  8-)

--Bill Seymour