Floating Point Arithmetic

The cluster focuses on the challenges, precision issues, and limitations of floating-point arithmetic in computing, including references to IEEE standards, common pitfalls, and alternatives like fixed-point math.

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8,335
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#5356
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
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Keywords

e.g PROBLEM TYPE ALU C99 E19957 WASM users.encs CFLAGS IA floating point floating arithmetic ieee float precision numbers floats math decimal

Sample Comments

reificator Apr 16, 2018 View on HN

Especially since it's using floating point arithmetic.

hedora May 4, 2022 View on HN

It also has opinions about floating point numbers.

We're used to inexact computing from floating point math.

evv Nov 25, 2018 View on HN

Talk about floating point precision!

pmiller2 Aug 10, 2018 View on HN

Floating point is only useful to the extent that it approximates real arithmetic.

TillE Dec 4, 2016 View on HN

Floating point is awful if you care about precision.

aix1 Dec 17, 2021 View on HN

Obligatory: What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetichttps://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19957-01/806-3568/ncg_goldberg.h...

fulafel Apr 21, 2014 View on HN

Floating point has dramatic differences in semantics compared to exact numbers, not an invisible implementation detail at all.

taf2 Jun 1, 2014 View on HN

floating point is hard. backwards compatibility is even harder

AstixAndBelix Jan 13, 2023 View on HN

depends on your choice of floating point standard, you're right for the current IEEE one