On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:13:28 -0400, robb wrote:
"Rich Grise" wrote in message
On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:23:27 -0400, robb wrote:
[snip]
even has 80-bit floats!

if you need 80 bit floats ....
I am surprised you guys are not using some functional
programming
language like scheme (lisp/Lambda calc variants) where your
reals
are number abstractions with no language or data type imposed limit on
the number size or precision and of course no
numerical
methods issues/errors from typical float/double data type limitations
just wondering,

Loosely-typed or untyped data is a mare's nest of bugs just waiting to
happen.

I should have known better than to bring up software in hardware group :}

perhaps you meant flexible or dynamic instead of loosely and un typed ?

it is very strongly typed as there are a few predefined basic prmitives
and "everything" is a defined type even operators and and functions are
all user defined types (or library of other users types) some say scalable

i am sure they said the same things about basic when it was first
introduced along with a host of other seemingly magical things that
illicited suspicion at first and then gave way to acceptance and trust.

a scheme implementation is what ? basic with some datastructures
{stacks,lists,etc}

and look at that google reveals 'BIT' a scheme implementation for
microcontroller running in 4k ram and stored in 13k rom among others

not trying to start any wars i was curious why hrdw engy types still use
basic as opposed to other very useful tools that exist that have
eliminated many problems associated with those old tools,


Not everybody who likes to play with hardware likes to play with software,
and not everybod who likes to play with software likes to play with
hardware; I consider those of us who like both to be the lucky ones. :-)

Cheers!
Rich