Re: K.I.S.S. Factor (Re: Numerics)

Dominique Colnet wrote:

> Greg C wrote:
>
>> What if I write "000000001"? That doesn't look like an eight-bit 
>> integer value
>
> You are right that in such a situation, the compiler should warn the 
> user that leading 0 are not significant and that 000000001 is still an 
> INTEGER_8. Anyway, the choice we made avoids information loss.

That's not true for floating point numbers. Consider the following:

  const: REAL_128 is 3.33333333333333333333333333
  var: REAL_128
  var := 3.33333333333333333333333333

In case of `var' the manifest number is understood as a REAL_64
and precision (i.e. the information in last digits) is lost. In contrast,
no information is lost for `const' because the compiler utilizes here
the context information, i.e. the declaration REAL_128.
Among other's, this means that the SE compiler is applies different 
strategies
when evaluating an expression's context: sometimes the context is ignored,
sometimes the context determines the type of the expression.

Wolfgang Jansen