Re: Strange result with exponents...

[Simon Coulter <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Friday, February 20, 2004, at 08:32  AM, Joe Pluta wrote:

>  At the same
> time, should everyone who uses exponentiation know floating point?  I
> don't think that's reasonable.

Of course it is reasonable! It is reasonable to expect programmers to 
know the tools they use--not just guess at the behaviour. It is 
reasonable to check the documentation when:
	a) a new feature is added to the language
	b) a new feature is used for the first time

In both cases a programmer would have been aware that floating-point 
was used for exponentiation. For example, both COBOL and RPG support a 
MOVE operation but they behave differently. Or RPG use bounded arrays 
but C doesn't. It is reasonable to expect that a programmer in both 
languages knows the behavioural differences and that a programmer using 
one language does not make assumptions based on the behaviour of the 
other.

Floating-point behaviour should have been learnt in PGMG 101 and even 
if forgotten should cause a programmer to think "Hmm, floating-point. 
I've heard weird things happen with that. I'd better investigate a bit".

> I actually never used the word "error".

I never said you did. I put the word error in quotes to indicate that 
the behaviour might be perceived as an error when it's not. At worst it 
is a bad design choice but that choice may have made perfect sense to 
the developer at the time it was made.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.
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