New python module to simulate arbitrary fixed and infinite precision binary floating point

[Rob Clewley]

>
> Is this related to minifloats?
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minifloat
>

Strictly speaking, yes, although after a brief introduction to the
general idea, the entry on that page focuses entirely on the
interpretation of the values as integers. My code *only* represents
the values in the same way as the regular-sized IEEE 754 formats, i.e.
the smallest representable number is a fraction < 1, not the integer
1. I haven't supplied a way to use my classes to encode integers in
this way, but it wouldn't be hard for someone to add that
functionality in a sub-class of my ContextClass.

Thanks for pointing out that page, anyway. I didn't know the smaller
formats had been given their own name.

-Rob