From: Roger Pack <rogerpack2005@...>
Date: 2010-05-12T00:09:24+09:00
Subject: Re: ruby 1.9+ , floats, and decimal


> 1). Just because BigDecimal has what seems like better behavior in
> some cases compared to a binary float, it has just as many problems in
> other cases.
> 
>    (BigDecimal("1") / BigDecimal("3")).to_s
>  => "0.333333333333333333333333333333333333E0"
> 
>    Both binary and decimal floats have an infinite number of real
> numbers which they can't express exactly.

Good point.
Maybe a good default would be Rational then?

>> Rational(1,3)
=> (1/3)


> And extended example which might make the point a bit better:
> ((BigDecimal("1") / BigDecimal("3"))*BigDecimal("3")).to_s
> => "0.999999999999999999999999999999999999E0"

That one seemed to work ok.  Was your point that it is limited to 36 
decimals by default?

Thanks!
-rp
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