Re: [boost] Interest in an arbitrary precision library?

From: Joel Eidsath (jeidsath_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-09-06 12:12:15

Andy Little wrote:

>On the contrary,  conversion from rational to float is an example of a "lossy 
>conversion".
>  
>
Wrong.  It is sometimes lossy, it is sometimes exact.

Numbers like 1.3, 134.5858, -0.87, are all rational numbers.  They can 
all be stored exactly in float.  1/3 is a rational number that cannot be 
stored exactly as a float.

Where you keep going wrong for some reason is thinking anarbitrary 
precision rational class should store _any_ rational number with 
infinite precision.  It's an arbitrary precision class, not an infinite 
precision class.  Numbers like 1/3 will be stored to an approximation 
only (however many of digits of accuracy you ask for).

Joel Eidsath