Re: [GNU-COBOL] What is meant by floating point variables

[Davyd Ondrejko <david.ondrejko@safelite.com>]

> > What do you mean by floating-point variables?  Things like PIC 99V9?
> 
> Floating point, which is not practical in business settings as it is
> in scientific/engineering settings where you already have a limited
> number of "significant digits" is like "exponential notation" you may
> have had to work with in high school chemistry class.  The number is
> divided into two integers, one the "exponent" and one the "mantissa"
> and a value can then cover a much wider range, although only as
> precisely as the length of the "mantissa."

OK, I misunderstood what you were driving at then.  I've never seen that
used in COBOL, although My experience has mainly been in "business
settings."

> DEC pioneered hardware floating point in the PDP series of machinery
> I understand or have been misguided into believing.

I think you're right.  I know that My professors were proud of it back
in college, where I was trained on a DEC PDP-11/70 (running RSTS/E,
even). ;-)



-- 
David R. Ondrejko - EDI/Referral - Safelite Glass Co.
 Mathematician by training - Programmer by trade - Philosopher by nature
 Genius by genetics - Atheist by conviction - Hedonist by desire!

--
This message was sent through the gnu-cobol mailing list.  To remove yourself
from this mailing list, send a message to majordomo@lusars.net with the
words "unsubscribe gnu-cobol" in the message body.  For more information on
the GNU COBOL project, send mail to gnu-cobol-owner@lusars.net.