[COFF] Fwd: Old and Tradition was [TUHS] V9 shell
Charles H Sauer
sauer at technologists.com
Thu Feb 13 08:45:54 AEST 2020
On 2/12/2020 4:11 PM, Warner Losh wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 12, 2020, 11:13 AM Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com
> <mailto:clemc at ccc.com>> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 11, 2020 at 10:01 PM Larry McVoy <lm at mcvoy.com
> <mailto:lm at mcvoy.com>> wrote:
>
> What little Fortran background I have suggests that the difference
> might be mind set. Fortran programmers are formally trained (at
> least I
> was, there was a whole semester devoted to this) in accumulated
> errors.
> You did a deep dive into how to code stuff so that the error was
> reduced
> each time instead of increased. It has a lot to do with how
> floating
> point works, it's not exact like integers are.
>
> Just a thought, but it might also be the training. My Dad (a
> mathematician and 'computer') passed a few years ago, I'd love to
> have asked him. But I suspect when he and his peeps were doing
> this with a slide rule or at best an Friden mechanical adding
> machine, they were acutely aware of how errors accumulated or not.
> When they started to convert their processes/techniques to Fortran
> in the early 1960s, I agree with you that I think they were
> conscious of what they were doing. I'm not sure modern CS types
> are taught the same things as what might be taught in a course being
> run by a pure scientist who cares in the same way folks like our
> mothers and fathers did in the 1950s and 60s.
>
>
> Most cs types barely know that 2.234 might not be an exact number when
> converted to binary... A few, however can do sophisticated analysis on
> the average ULP for complex functions over the expected range..
If that is true of some today, that is sad and disappointing. I think I
was taught otherwise in my beginning C.S. course at UT-Austin in 1971.
If I recall correctly:
- all doctoral candidates ended up taking two semesters of numerical
analysis. I still have two volume n.a. text in the attic (orange, but
not "burnt orange", IIRC).
- numerical analysis was covered on the doctoral qualifying exam.
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