vu0310@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (R. Kym Horsell) (08/15/90)
In article <1990Aug14.034632.5561@twinsun.com> eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) writes: >with IEEE double precision floating point, the closest representable number to >8.1 is X = 8.0999999999999996447286321199499070644378662109375. But when I While my sun and sparc came up with the same rep as you(rs), I don't think it is the *closest* one to 8.1 in 55 bits of mantissa. Since 8.1 is hex 81[9's]8 where the lsb of "8" is the 56th bit, it rounds up (since the next bits after the 55th are 1100) to 81[9's]a which gives: 8.100000000000000088817841970012523233890533447265625 [I became sus when my vax gave 8.1[0's]1 for a double 8.1]. Maybe a few C printf's need overhaul, besides the point of rounding to the nearest number in significant decimal digits. -Kym Horsell