Re:DEC64: Decimal Floating Point
by mistercow on Saturday March 08, 2014 @04:33PM
(#7366466)
>In the bigger picture what i fell we are generally missing in most programing languages is an EASY way to store and handle fractions.
I'm squeamish about that. I fear that a lot of new programmers would overuse a fraction type if it were built in, and this can quickly lead to really poor performance.
In most cases, floating point works just fine. Reducing fractions is slow, so you really only want to use them when perfect precision is absolutely necessary.
What I see happening is someone new to programming hits a point where they need a fractional number type. They look in the documentation and they see "integer, floating point, fraction" and they say "Aha! Fraction! I know what those are."
I'm squeamish about that. I fear that a lot of new programmers would overuse a fraction type if it were built in, and this can quickly lead to really poor performance.
In most cases, floating point works just fine. Reducing fractions is slow, so you really only want to use them when perfect precision is absolutely necessary.
What I see happening is someone new to programming hits a point where they need a fractional number type. They look in the documentation and they see "integer, floating point, fraction" and they say "Aha! Fraction! I know what those are."