Hello,
I am trying to understand something about PicoLisp and Fixpoint numbers.
I am writing an app and would consider PicoLisp should I get my head
around Lisp. But I do not understand how to use numbers.
I use a lot of floating point numbers and lots of calculations. From
simple experiments it seems that the numbers and math appear to be
accurate and correct. However I have no understanding of how to present
a final result formatted correctly.
Example:
(setq *Scl 5) ;; or could be 10 ...
(* 0.00009 0.0009)
-> 81
From another language: 0.0000000081
or:
(setq *Scl 20)
(* 9.9 9.789 9.56789)
-> 927234744579000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
From another language 20 decimal points printed after converting to
floating point:
927.23474457900010747835
The math looks fine as far as these simple examples go. But if I do
several to dozens of different calculations with floating point numbers
with unknown values until streamed to the app from some source. How do I
know where the decimal point really belongs in order to format correctly
for human use? Is it possible?
I personally do not have a problem with fixpoint for internal use, as
that is simply an implementation issue. However I do need to convert
back to the best floating point representation for display or storage.
Any help in understanding would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Jimmie
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