- From: Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org>
- Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2000 09:43:19 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time)
- To: Curt Arnold <carnold@houston.rr.com>
- cc: www-forms@w3.org
On Fri, 7 Apr 2000, Curt Arnold wrote: > I agree that "decimal" datatypes better meet users expectations. > However, there still needs to be a mechanism to allow numeric > fields that cover the full range of IEEE double and allow an > exponential format. > > If arbitrary precision and range numeric types are not > appropriate, perhaps a hybrid where floating point (or some > augmented decimal type) was used when numbers were outside of > decimals range. The use of decimal arithmetic is orthogonal to whether or not a number has an exponent. I quote from Appendix C of the draft XForms data model: In practice, the 'default' decimal precision (9 digits) can be very efficiently implemented using 32-bit integers for mantissa and exponent. This implementation would be especially attractive on 'small' devices. Regards, -- Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett tel/fax: +44 122 578 3011 (or 2521) +44 385 320 444 (mobile) World Wide Web Consortium (on assignment from HP Labs)
Received on Friday, 7 April 2000 04:43:27 UTC