Mark Miesfeld wrote:
On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 5:42 AM, Rick McGuire <[email protected]> wrote:
I'm starting to come around to the position that the default digits
setting should be 9 (not completely convinced yet, but close).
I'm not entirely convinced either. But, if you and Mike reach a
consensus on it, then I'm content to go with that. Personally, I
don't buy the readability argument.
However, I think that if this is done, then there are some additional
things that need to be added. One is a ::options directive to allow
these things to be tailored on a source file basis.
The ::options directive is in and by itself a great idea. However, if
the decision is to go with a default of 9 digits for the 64-bit build,
then I think it is a must.
I gotta run now, I'll thing about a keyword that means "use the same
as the internal built-in setting".
--
Mark Miesfeld
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I can live with an OPTIONS directive.
And I have NEVER agreed with the readability argument. My programs have
way too many instances where the readability limit places far too many
limitations on my math calculations. I much prefer precise results over
the surprise factor of loosing digits unexpectedly. Therefore I am
constantly placing a NUMERIC DIGITS 14 at various places in my programs.
And I would like to make one last point about the readability
philosophy. If you examine any Rexx program and count the number of
numeric objects that are used or generated in the program, you will
typically find that 90% or more of those objects never get displayed
except during the debugging cycle of the program. And those that do get
displayed to the user are almost always formatted in some way. In fact,
I would say that most users will not accept a program that does not
format numbers for readability. Therefore, the readability argument just
does not hold water in most circumstances as an argument for limiting
the number of digits. It is strictly a easy limit to help the
programmer, but it turns out to be an impediment to producing precise
calculations for production programs.
As a systems administrator I am always writing Rexx programs to
calculate disk usage, file size, memory capacity, and other such large
value objects. I constantly have to think about the 9 digit limit on my
calculations in such programs. The default of 18 digits in the 64-bit
environment was going to be a real help to me and I was not happy about
reverting it to 9. At least with the OPTIONS directive I can easily
globalize a new setting.
David Ashley
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