Re: FP number syntax

In article <2025Jan2.165111@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at>,
Anton Ertl <anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:

albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl writes:

The confusion between 31E0 (hex) 31E0 (fp) 3.10 is another
roadblock to Forth newbies.

>
Certainly, especially the latter.  The hex problem can be eliminated
by always keeping the BASE as DECIMAL, and writing hex numbers as
$31E0.  The 3.10 tradition and the 31. standard can be addressed with
a variation of your statement:
>
  Recognizing a double if it contains no number prefix and one single
  period at the end is obsolescent.
>
One step later a standard Forth system could recognize 3.10 as well as
31. and 31e as FP values, #31. as a double-cell integer, and $31e
as a single-cell integer.

One step further is to use 0x for hex values, and free $ for
environment strings.
This scheme has so much going for it that I tend to give up
the advantage to represent floating points exactly in hex. 1]
Then probably one can forget BASE DECIMAL and ban double numbers to
an obscure region of a library.

1] This is not easy. I have been in many projects where floating points
were transferred in text, loosing precision. But of course parameters
in oil drill samples need not 5 decimal places.

>
- anton

Groetjes Albert
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