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From: dxf <dxforth@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: "The Best Programming Language for the End of the World"
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2025 12:21:13 +1000
Organization: i2pn2 (i2pn.org)
Message-ID: <cbb106be3daee91e2680165287cd6ca6560245b9@i2pn2.org>
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On 9/04/2025 1:15 am, dxf wrote:
> ... 
> It's not SET-PRECISION (presumably the implementer has made that sane)
> but rather variability when values are sane e.g.
> 
>>> 6 set-precision  ok
>>> 1e-4 f.  0.000100000  ok
>>>
>>> 6 set-precision  ok
>>> 1e-4 f. 0.0001  ok
> 
> While both of those are numerically correct, they're plainly different i.e.
> 11 characters vs. 6 characters.  As an app writer I'd like some uniformity
> here as I might want to output several columns of numbers on a screen.  To
> do that I need to know how wide to make those columns.
> ...

Iforth's F. was previously mentioned.  In addition to treating PRECISION as
a decimal points specifier (ok it was their decision) F. includes mode
switching based on something called 'fieldwidth' for which I could find no
reference.  Is mode switching good or bad?  As always - it depends.  I've
yet to see a bank statement with the balance displayed in scientific
notation.  (But then I'm not Elon Musk so who knows.)

I mention this to demonstrate the variability that exists across forth -
presumably because Forth-94 chose not to think it through leaving folks
to their own devices.  REPRESENT ?  Well, I could rant about that too :)