[Info-vax] Floating Point, Machine Epsilon, Rust, Swift, Etc (was: Re: VMS Software Q1 '23 Update)

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 2/1/2023 11:52 AM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> Swift has a deliberately-obscurely-named equivalent to machine epsilon, 
> as do some other languages.

The reality is that a relevant epsilon for floating point comparison
depends on the context.

When I am exposed to the problem then it is typical regarding
testing for convergence of iterative algorithms. Is Xt
the same as Xt-1.

And the right epsilon depends on the scale of the data.

Arne