FW: [Moderator Action] Decimal arithmatic

Interesting, but as a non zero proponent I must recluse myself form this
discussion.  Brendan

Brendan Kennedy - Placement Manager
Babich & Associates Placement & Recruitment
The Experienced People Company - since 1952
Phone 214.823.9999 fax 972.263.7585
Email babich05@flash.net

-----Original Message-----
From: 	www-forms-request@w3.org [mailto:www-forms-request@w3.org]  On Behalf
Of Dave Raggett
Sent:	Friday, April 07, 2000 3:43 AM
To:	Curt Arnold
Cc:	www-forms@w3.org
Subject:	Re: [Moderator Action] Decimal arithmatic

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 17:20:35 UTC