[Info-vax] New VSI Roadmap (yipee!)

[David Froble]

lists at openmailbox.org wrote:
> On Mon, 02 Mar 2015 12:57:47 -0500
> David Froble via Info-vax <info-vax at rbnsn.com> wrote:
> 
>> lists at openmailbox.org wrote:
>>>> I can't imagine ever using floating point in a new money handling
>>>> application these days given all the other options available.
>>> It was *never* acceptable!
>>>
>> Even when there was no other options?
> 
> Especially when there was no other option.
> 
> Integers with software scaling (i.e. treat all amounts as cents) would have
> probably been better depending on what calculations and how many
> calculations were involved and what integer types were available. But if
> you had no integer type big enough to represent the largest amount as
> cents that is a real problem and strongly suggests the solution should not
> be coded on that platform.

Ok, let me see if I can understand this attitude ..

If you can't do it the way you consider "proper", then don't do it at 
all?  Gee, I could have been a man of leisure.  Poor man of leisure.

Integers, huh?  Let me see, -32768 to 32767, yeah, that's more than 
enough to show the company's monthly sales.

I'm wondering about your age, because you don't seem to have much of an 
idea what type of computing resources was available in the early 1970s.

I'll say it once more.  We used what we had, and we made it work, and 
IT'S WORKED WELL FOR OVER 40 YEARS!!!  That's one thing more recent 
stuff cannot say, and will probably never be able to say.