Re: [Boost-users] cross-platfrom binary serialization?

From: Daryle Walker (darylew_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-08-28 05:18:21

On Aug 27, 2008, at 8:52 PM, Matthias Troyer wrote:

> On 27 Aug 2008, at 15:29, Robert Ramey wrote:
>
>> Daryle Walker wrote:
>>
>>> I have an alternate suggestion: what about continued fractions?   
>>> Turn
>>> the floating point value into a list of integers.  This works no
>>> matter what f.p. systems the source and destination use.  You just
>>> need a portable integer serialization format.
>>
>> which we already have.
[SNIP]
>> I'm don't have enough time to review the suggestion in the
>> detail it probably deserves.  But a cursory look shows
>> a lot of imagination.
>
> It will just be horribly inefficient. A text representation will be  
> faster and more compact.

But we're trying to avoid conversion rounding errors, which could  
happen even under text conversion.  If you don't like continued  
fractions, then serialize the f.p. radix, the virtual numerator of  
the binary (or whatever) fraction (include any implicit leading 1 or  
whatever), and the power of the radix used for the virtual  
denominator.  They're all integers, so feel free to use text if you  
want.

-- 
Daryle Walker
Mac, Internet, and Video Game Junkie
darylew AT hotmail DOT com