DFP = Decimal Floating Point.  New (FSVO "new") hardware data format, 
operations done in floating point registers like regular Hexadecimal Floating 
Point (HFP) and Binary Floating Point (BFP) operations (traditional C float or 
double, PL/1 FLOAT, COBOL COMPUTATIONAL-1 and -2).

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Bob 
Bridges
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2022 10:56 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Decimal Floating Point revisited

EXTERNAL EMAIL

GAAP, for the uninitiate, is Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, which 
sounds pretty subjective but they're fairly well understood and documented 
although they change slightly from year to year.  But since I don't know what 
DFP is I can't comment further.

---
Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 ...who finished his 
degree in Accounting but went on into programming after college and never 
looked back

/* A lie goes half way round the world before the truth can get its pants on. 
-- Winston Churchill */

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of 
Paul Gilmartin
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2022 20:24

Why  not BFP or HFP?  Is it a requirement for GAAP compliance of intermediate 
results?

I have long suspected that GAAP was the most plausible (but not rational, IMO) 
motivation for DFP

I believe that enforcing GAAP on intermediate results gives a less accurate 
ultimate result -- it's just identical to what quill pen and parchment would 
have given.

--- On Thu, 27 Jan 2022 18:32:03 -0500, Tony Harminc wrote:
>Still, there are nine (9) significant digits to those rates - beats 
>Cowlishaw's 5-digit tax rates on a phone call.Try that in binary FP.
>For that matter, try calculating the total bill across the city using 
>traditional packed decimal.
--

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