[julia-users] realmax function and maximum float64 number

[Beata Szostakowska]

I was trying to experimentally find the maximum number for type float64. 
The number I got is 8.98846567431158e 307. However built-in function 
realmax(Float64) returns 1.7976931348623157e308.  What is the reason of 
this difference?
This is my code to find maximum number:

temp = 1.
max = 1.

    while !isinf(max)
           temp = max
           max *= 2.
    end

max = temp