are int, float, long, double, side-effects of computer engineering?

[Calvin Kim]

On 03/06/2012 01:34 AM, Xah Lee wrote:
> while what you said is true, but the problem is that 99.99% of
> programers do NOT know this. They do not know Mathematica. They've
> never seen a language with such feature. The concept is alien. This is
> what i'd like to point out and spread awareness.
>
I can see your point. But that's not simply true. In my case and many 
others, such issue was addressed during first week of introductory 
programming classes. I was naively thought "computer = precision" and I 
was stunned to find out the inaccuracy of computer calculations.

But as you experienced, I also stumble upon some people (specially Java 
only programmers) who were not aware of it.

> also, argument about raw speed and fine control vs automatic
> management, rots with time. Happened with auto memory management,
> managed code, compilers, auto type conversion, auto extension of
> array, auto type system, dynamic/scripting languages, etc.
Maybe it's because I'm not in scientific community, that I learned to 
live with such side-effects. Because 99.99% of computer users and 
programmers can afford to, and willing to lose such small inaccuracy 
billion times in exchange for some performance increase and convenience. 
Although NASA may not accept my application for their projects for Mars 
mission after this posting.