MCGRATH%OZ.AI.MIT.EDU@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU ("Jim McGrath") (02/14/86)
From: sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!steve@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Steven Holtsberg)
(2) On page 3-20 of the reference manual, the canonical form for
any floating point number other than zero is given as sign *
mantissa * (radix ** exponent) My question: Why is radix given as
a parameter? Isn't the radix, by definition, two?
No, it is not. The radix can, in general, be any number. If your
data is in base 10, then it is a big win if the language you are using
supports that representation directly, rather than forcing you to
convert it yourself. Even computers do not exclusively compute in
base 2. Many have optional base 8, 10, nd 16 operations.
Jim
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