From: Mohammad Khan <mkhan@...>
Date: 2004-05-13T04:23:44+09:00
Subject: Re: Major Addition Bug?

I guess, you guys are missing the point,

in real life you can't have exact answer of 1/3 + 2.3 + 1.3
but you can have exact answer of 625.91 + 900.00 + 22.00

Mohammad




----- Original Message -----
From: "Hal Fulton" <hal9000@hypermetrics.com>
To: "ruby-talk ML" <ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 3:15 PM
Subject: Re: Major Addition Bug?


> Sean O'Dell wrote:
> > On Wednesday 12 May 2004 09:53, ts wrote:
> >
> >>>>>>>"S" == Sean O'Dell <sean@celsoft.com> writes:
> >>
> >>S> raise "false" if ((625.91 + 900.00 + 22.00) != 1547.91)
> >>
> >> Well, this is well known
> >
> >
> > Well known?  I had no idea this bug existed until I wrote a line of code
that
> > double-checked the arithmetic from a different app.  I have code all
over
> > doing simple arithmetic like this.  Ruby can't add 3 simple numbers?  I
don't
> > mean to be disproportionately negative, but that shakes my faith more
than a
> > little.  It's just simple arithmetic.  How old is this bug?  When is it
> > getting fixed?
>
> Offhand I'd say this bug dates back to the 1940s, and isn't
> getting fixed any time soon.
>
> Seriously, I think it's a matter of trying to store an infinite
> number of digits in a finite number of bits.
>
> For a daily life example: How many digits does it take to store
> "1/3" exactly?  0.333333...
>
>
>
> Hal
>
>
>
>