mrose@stsci.EDU (Mike Rose) (05/06/90)
I'm writing a common lisp routine to print floating point numbers so that the use of available space is maximized. The requirements are: flonums should be printed in fixed-format floating point in a field w characters wide. If the fixed-format representation doesn't fit in w characters, or if exponential floating-point shows more significant figures in w characters, then use exponential floating-point. If the number can't show at least one significant figure in either-fixed format or exponential, use fixed format in as wide a field as necessary. This must be machine-independent. Does anyone have a good way to do this? ~G looked like a good possibility, but it leaves space for the exponent even when one isn't used. Maybe there's something really clever I can do with it? Thanks, Mike Rose mrose@stsci.edu