Re^5: Negative zero from a multiplication by a zero?

When I said, results can be unpredictable...that meant that source code on machine X may not generate the same results as on machine Y. Machine X will probably do what Machine X does repeatably!

I think the whole idea of this thread was that when you are dealing with either very big or very small numbers, there are a lot of ways to "get into trouble", meaning that numeric results for the same source just may not be equal.

Comment on Re^5: Negative zero from a multiplication by a zero?

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Re^6: Negative zero from a multiplication by a zero? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 09, 2009 at 21:18 UTC
that meant that source code on machine X may not generate the same results as on machine Y. Machine X will probably do what Machine X does repeatably! "platform-specific" or "not portable" are common terms to describe this. I think the whole idea of this thread was that when you are dealing with either very big or very small numbers, there are a lot of ways to "get into trouble" I don't know to what large numbers, small numbers and trouble you are referring. I did not get any such idea from this thread. Quite the opposite, the OP's question was about a feature that prevents you from getting into trouble in a particular situation.	[reply]
Re^7: Negative zero from a multiplication by a zero? by Marshall (Canon) on Jun 09, 2009 at 22:10 UTC
I think we've gone past what the op wanted to know. The "big" number thing came about with %24.16e format. I would ask the Op to tell us what didn't get answered from the original post.	[reply]
Re^8: Negative zero from a multiplication by a zero? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 09, 2009 at 22:16 UTC
"00000000000000000000000000000000" is no bigger a number than "0". the `.16` was to make sure the number wasn't really -0.00....001 masquerading as -0.	[reply] [d/l]