sfloat24 Floating Point DataType - Request for Comments

[Bill Buckels]

On Thursday, 3 April 2014 at 21:06:52 UTC, Andrej Mitrovic wrote:
> On 4/3/14, Bill Buckels <bbuckels at mts.net> wrote:
>> D Compiler for .NET -- Compiles the code to Common Intermediate
>> Language (CIL) bytecode rather than to machine code. The CIL 
>> can
>> then be run via a Common Language Infrastructure (CLR) virtual
>> machine
>
> This seems out of place? What about D for .NET?

That was really my question:) If D was to have the sfloat24 
built-in data type, to what extent would that affect using an 
interface layer like .NET?

Or does anybody use D in .NET? Does anyone care what Microsoft 
does with their layers? How about IOs? Anything precise happening 
in D over there? OSX?

Would the availability of sfloat24 in D expand the use of D in 
the .NET environment? Or for that matter any environment? 
Arduino? Raspberry Pi? Bluetooth? Anyone doing FPGA in D on some 
new contraption that isn't built yet?

Exactly what are your views on sfloat24 after reading the papers? 
Rsik versus Reward for any language like D in this case that took 
a giant leap of faith and decided to provide support for sfloat24?

Is this just something that electrical engineers are going to use 
doing experimental programming or has sfloat24 some practical 
merit that would make it desirable as a built-in data type for 
the D community.

I have none of these answers. I know the group advocating 
sfloat24 somewhat, and they believe strongly in this data type. I 
told one of the fellows that I would ask other programmers if 
they saw a need for sfloat24.

Early acceptors like D programmers likely have substantially more 
vision than complacent old C programmers like me.

Double precision has always worked for me in the C language over 
my last 30 years or so. However I don't do the kind of precision 
that they do. I also don't program small processors and haven't 
worried about running out of memory since CP/M, the Apple II and 
MS-DOS. I haven't worried much about speed in floating point 
calculations since intel started including a floating point 
co-processor in their CPU. But it was a real pain, back in the 
day, to wait for a double precision calculation to complete when 
we needed to link C with an floating point emulation library for 
folks who had no co-pros. I could've used a smaller quicker more 
precise double on those little boxes.

The banking software I wrote back then runs after-hours and 
nobody much cared if it was COBOL or C++ back then... is it still 
the same job market today for you even in D? Or does the bank 
just add a couple more blade servers when things bog-down? Do 
programmers still bury rounding errors in the largest number?

With the prevalence of blue-tooth and embedded systems today, are 
there any D programmers who are working in those environments. Or 
is most of the world like me, perfectly content to sit on a 
Windows or a Linux box, and just use the stuff that comes with 
the compiler.

Frankly, the only way I can tell the difference between a program 
compiled with MinGW, and with Microsoft C, is that the MinGW 
program is smaller. It doesn't seem faster, and since both map to 
the same Windows calls, maybe it isn't faster.

So does it work the same way in D?

When I used the .NET layer for years, I couldn't tell the 
difference in speed between VB.NET and C#. I couldn't notice any 
difference in Windows Mobile on a ARM processor either.

As far as Linux, whether it wws c or C++, or even the Qt 
applications I worked on, or even in earlier times using gcc on 
an IBM360 or whatever when I did 'em all, everything ended-up 
about the same, so is this more something a compiler might 
implement independent of any layer at all, and optimize 
internally based on data type?

If so, does anyone want it besides scientists? Where's the use 
case in D? If any?

Questions of that nature...

Also is anyone working on a trajectory calculation for a lunar 
landing in D? My friend Jack Crenshaw is with one of the google 
ranger groups... but I don't get out much so I don't know what 
other people do anymore:)

So I thought I should ask.

Bill