Precision and CD's

[Richard J. Fateman]

Regarding the LIA documents, there was a substantial fight about
them around here, but the last I saw of them it would be an
error to say they were more general than IEEE 854.  LIA, at
least in the drafts I saw, tended to be a retreat from standardization.
Instead of saying "here's how to do X"  (X= arithmetic, rounding, exceptions)
LIA tends to take the view that anything that anyone ever did on any
computer dead or alive should be allowed. And if some computers
produce exceptions and others don't, that's ok. And if some round
accurately, thats good, but sloppy rounding is also OK.

-
om at openmath.org  -  general discussion on OpenMath
Post public announcements to om-announce at openmath.org
Automatic list maintenance software at majordomo at openmath.org
Mail om-owner at openmath.org for assistance with any problems