-- Hans-Christoph Steiner mobile: +1 347 850 4872 work: +1 718 360 4872
On Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:26 -0400, "Martin Peach" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> (Also, someone could make this "an XXX bits float can store a YYY bits > >> integer" a bit more clear as I personally still don't really understand > >> it. > >> I also remember vaguely some criticism of this system, that it is not > >> very > >> efficient? Matju? If you guys explain it here on the list I'll be happy > >> to > >> add it to the wiki.) > >> > >> Andras > > > > With a 32-bit float, some of the bits go to representing the exponent > > part, therefore there is not the full 32-bits available to represent an > > integer. > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significand > > > > It's worse than that though. Pd uses the %g format specifier when it > writes out the pd patch (e.g. printf("%g", number)), so floats get > simplified. It's possible to use a high precision number by entering it > in the patch but when you reopen the patch it will have been simplified. > > Martin > Yes, it does loose a bit with the %g. AFAIK, the %g just simplifies a little bit, i.e. down to 6 decimal digits while the actual number format can represent about 6.5 decimal digits. .hc _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
