xkcd: Day Counter
https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life ! Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3228:_Day_Counter
Whatever you do, do not select rCLSpace Opera ModerCY in the new mode
drop down list. "Boat mode" made me a little queasy after a while.
And "modem mode" does not seem to do anything.
Lynn
Those of us with brains use Apple computers and the Numbers
spreadsheet program does not have this issue.
xkcd: Day Counter
-a-a https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life !-a Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Explained at:
-a-a https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3228:_Day_Counter
Whatever you do, do not select rCLSpace Opera ModerCY in the new mode drop down list.-a "Boat mode" made me a little queasy after a while.-a And
"modem mode" does not seem to do anything.
Lynn
xkcd: Day Counter
-a-a https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life !-a Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Explained at:
-a-a https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3228:_Day_Counter
Whatever you do, do not select rCLSpace Opera ModerCY in the new mode drop down list.
"modem mode" does not seem to do anything.
Lynn
On 4/3/26 11:40 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
xkcd: Day Counter
-a-a-a https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life !-a Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Explained at:
-a-a-a https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3228:_Day_Counter
Whatever you do, do not select rCLSpace Opera ModerCY in the new mode drop >> down list.
But if you do select Space Opera Mode, the box to change modes is active
as it scrolls by.
On 2026-04-04 03:40:15 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:In OOo, use of round(<value>;2) (or equivalent function and desired
xkcd: Day Counter
https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life ! Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3228:_Day_Counter
Whatever you do, do not select rCLSpace Opera ModerC? in the new mode
drop down list. "Boat mode" made me a little queasy after a while.
And "modem mode" does not seem to do anything.
Lynn
Yep. It's a problem in Excel (still today!), which is relied on by
almost all businesses, thanks to the idiots at Microsoft not being able
to actually program. I discovered it by accident when I had some >cross-checking calucations that said there was an error, when, after
quite a lot of time trying to find the error, turned out to in Excel
itself. :-\
Those of us with brains use Apple computers and the Numbers spreadsheet >program does not have this issue.--
Lynn McGuire wrote:Here, on my Coolby Laptop, it just draws it "line by line" from top to
xkcd: Day Counter
aa https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life !a Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Explained at:
aa https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3228:_Day_Counter
Whatever you do, do not select oSpace Opera Modeo in the new mode drop
down list.a "Boat mode" made me a little queasy after a while.a And
"modem mode" does not seem to do anything.
The point about "modem mode" is that everything is painfully s-l-o-w.
My browser (Firefox) informed me that a script was slowing my machine
down (processor utilisation showed that!) and did I want to stop it?
I did.
Darkest Mode was amusingIndeed.
Space Opera Mode was a problem.
Screensaver Mode was fun.
xkcd: Day Counter
-a-a https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life !-a Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Explained at:
-a-a https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3228:_Day_Counter
Whatever you do, do not select rCLSpace Opera ModerCY in the new mode drop down list.-a "Boat mode" made me a little queasy after a while.-a And
"modem mode" does not seem to do anything.
Lynn
My browser (Firefox) informed me that a script was slowing my
machine down (processor utilisation showed that!) and did I want to
stop it? I did.
xkcd: Day Counter
https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life ! Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3228:_Day_Counter
Whatever you do, do not select rCLSpace Opera ModerCY in the new mode drop down list. "Boat mode" made me a little queasy after a while. And
"modem mode" does not seem to do anything.
Lynn McGuire wrote this screed in ALL-CAPS:
xkcd: Day Counter
https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life ! Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Well these days we have long double.
Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> writes:
Lynn McGuire wrote this screed in ALL-CAPS:
xkcd: Day Counter
https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life ! Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Well these days we have long double.
C has had long double as a standard type since the original 1989
ANSI C standard. (K&R1, 1978, didn't have long double.)
But wider floating-point types don't eliminate rounding errors.
Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> schrieb:
Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> writes:
Lynn McGuire wrote this screed in ALL-CAPS:
xkcd: Day Counter
https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life ! Not so much now >>>> with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Well these days we have long double.
C has had long double as a standard type since the original 1989
ANSI C standard. (K&R1, 1978, didn't have long double.)
But wider floating-point types don't eliminate rounding errors.
Nor does "long double" have to be any more accurate thean
"double". C's type system leaves something to be desired
in that respect.
Fortran showed how it's done with its kind numbers and
SELECTED_REAL_KIND function - you ask for a certain minimum
precision, and the compiler either gives it to you, or your program
fails at compile time.
On 2026-04-04 03:40:15 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:
xkcd: Day Counter
https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life ! Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3228:_Day_Counter
Whatever you do, do not select |o-C-LSpace Opera Mode|o-C-Y in the new mode >> drop down list. "Boat mode" made me a little queasy after a while.
And "modem mode" does not seem to do anything.
Lynn
Yep. It's a problem in Excel (still today!), which is relied on by
almost all businesses, thanks to the idiots at Microsoft not being able
to actually program. I discovered it by accident when I had some cross-checking calucations that said there was an error, when, after
quite a lot of time trying to find the error, turned out to in Excel
itself. :-\
Those of us with brains use Apple computers and the Numbers spreadsheet program does not have this issue.
xkcd: Day Counter
https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life ! Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3228:_Day_Counter
Whatever you do, do not select rCLSpace Opera ModerCY in the new mode drop down list. "Boat mode" made me a little queasy after a while. And
"modem mode" does not seem to do anything.
Lynn
Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:Theoretically speaking, would that allow creating a program that can
On 2026-04-04 03:40:15 +0000, Lynn McGuire said:
xkcd: Day Counter
https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life ! Not so much now
with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3228:_Day_Counter
Whatever you do, do not select r??Space Opera Moder?? in the new mode
drop down list. "Boat mode" made me a little queasy after a while.
And "modem mode" does not seem to do anything.
Lynn
Yep. It's a problem in Excel (still today!), which is relied on by
almost all businesses, thanks to the idiots at Microsoft not being able
to actually program. I discovered it by accident when I had some
cross-checking calucations that said there was an error, when, after
quite a lot of time trying to find the error, turned out to in Excel
itself. :-\
Those of us with brains use Apple computers and the Numbers spreadsheet
program does not have this issue.
I encountered the following problem with Excel: if you use ExcelAs
Automation API (based on the Microsoft COM framework), you can access >everything inside an Excel workbook programmatically. Also any charts that >have been added to a spreadsheet. However, if youare trying to iterate >through the series of the graph and try to access the formatting of the >series (are there lines between the points of the series, if so which
color, thickness, etc.), youall get an error when youAre accessing a series >that is not shown in the legend of the chart because the legend is too
small. If you increase the size of the chart to an ridiculous amount (so
that you can be sure that the legend will be big enough to show every
series of the chart), you can access everything without a problem.
If a program contains such incredible errors, I would keep my fingers from >it. Although I havenAt tried to do the same thing with Open/LibreOfficeas >automation API, Iad vouch that such an error would not occur.
And yes, us professionals prefer Apple over MS, even though Visual Studio--
has some features that I sorely miss in other IDEs.
Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> writes:
Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> schrieb:
Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> writes:
Lynn McGuire wrote this screed in ALL-CAPS:
xkcd: Day Counter
https://xkcd.com/3228/
Yes, floating point errors are the bane of my life ! Not so much now >>>>> with double precision but the single precision days were nightmares.
Well these days we have long double.
C has had long double as a standard type since the original 1989
ANSI C standard. (K&R1, 1978, didn't have long double.)
But wider floating-point types don't eliminate rounding errors.
Nor does "long double" have to be any more accurate thean
"double". C's type system leaves something to be desired
in that respect.
Fortran showed how it's done with its kind numbers and
SELECTED_REAL_KIND function - you ask for a certain minimum
precision, and the compiler either gives it to you, or your program
fails at compile time.
You can do the same thing in C or C++ with a compile-time test.
#include <float.h>
#if LDBL_DIG < 18
#error "long double doesn't have enough precision"
#endif
Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> schrieb:[...]
Thomas Koenig <tkoenig@netcologne.de> writes:
Fortran showed how it's done with its kind numbers and
SELECTED_REAL_KIND function - you ask for a certain minimum
precision, and the compiler either gives it to you, or your program
fails at compile time.
You can do the same thing in C or C++ with a compile-time test.
#include <float.h>
#if LDBL_DIG < 18
#error "long double doesn't have enough precision"
#endif
Not quite the same. SELECTED_REAL_KIND gives you the
_minimum_ real type for your requirements.
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