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From: Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: SAFEcode
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2015 10:28:42 -0700
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Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> writes:
> On 22/04/15 16:16, Malcolm McLean wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>> When numbers get seriously large, you can't represent them exactly.
>> For practical purposes, that means above about 1000 - there's seldom
>> much point in giving more than three significant figures to a human.
>
> Malcolm, if you want to discuss this in more detail, you can reach me
> on my mobile: 07 500 000 000.
>
>> So in science we resort to logs
>>
>> 1.23 e10
>
> That's 180 degrees away from being a log.
>
> <snip>

Not really.  In the C floating-point constant 1.23e10, for example, 10
is the (base-10) logarithm of the value that's multiplied by 1.23 to
give the value of the constant.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Working, but not speaking, for JetHead Development, Inc.
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"