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

From: Felipe Magno de Almeida (felipe.m.almeida_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-09-13 06:50:46

On 9/13/05, Andy Little <andy_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> "Daryle Walker" <darylew_at_[hidden]> wrote
> 
> > OK.  When you say "arbitrary precision," you mean that a precision limit
> > must be set (at run-time) before an operation.  Most people use "arbitrary
> > precision" to mean unlimited precision, not your "run-time cut-off"
> > precision.
> 
> Are  there really libraries that have unlimited precision?
> What happens when the result of a computation is irrational?

To have unlimited precision is needed unlimited space...
There's no way to have unlimited precision for any number.

If you have n bits to represent some number, then you'll have 2^n
numbers represented. Or else you'll have two numbers being represented
in the same way, which would lead to ambiguity on the way back.

> 
> regards
> Andy Little
> 
> 
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-- 
   Felipe Magno de Almeida
Developer from synergy and Computer Science student from State
University of Campinas(UNICAMP).
Unicamp: http://www.ic.unicamp.br
Synergy: http://www.synergy.com.br
"There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."