Robert P. Nix writes:

>Sorry, I don't share your excitement... I find it hard to get into any
>language that the defaults would allow you to add three positive
>numbers, get a result of zero, and not throw some sort of error or
>warning. The language wasn't well conceived.

  It's been a very long time since I last used PL/I, but I don't
remember anything about its arithmetic which would give this result.
IIRC it basically used the underlying 360/370 hardware for arithmetic.

  Could you say more about this intriguing error?

--henry schaffer

P.S. I didn't care for PL/I because of its complexity and awkwardness,
but I don't remember this type of error.

P.P.S. One can make this happen in most any language by creative use of
roundoff in float-integer conversions.  E.g. I = 0.45; J = 0.4; K = 0.35
and then total = I + J + J  will sum to zero.  I wouldn't consider this
a language problem.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit
http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390

Reply via email to