[boost] Re: Lets restart the decimal type discussion

From: Martin (adrianm_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-01-13 11:48:37

> IMO any kind of automatic rounding and precision should not be part of a 
> basic_decimal type at all!

I assume you mean that we don't need a decimal type with a fixed number of 
decimals. There is an extension to the propsed standard that allows fixed 
number of decimals so there seem to be some who need it. 

I know that I need fixed number of decimals in the software I am working with 
and that I often both have objects with round_to_nearest and round_toward_zero 
in the same application.

If I had a decimal floating point type available I could probably have used 
it. It would make some things easier and other things more difficult.

> The behaviour of basic_decimal should stick 
> to the decimal proposal of Mike Cowlishaw and he explains very well in 
> his FAQ section why it's not a good idea to have normalized decimal 
> arithmetic:

Why do you mention "normalized decimal arithmetic"? Isn't that a way store 
floating point numbers or do you mean something else.