Re: [MacPerl] Cobol replacement? (fwd)

[mark@cheers.jsc.nasa.gov (Mark Manning/Muniz Eng.)]

According to Alex Satrapa:
> 
> Well... either stick to integer maths or use strings to represent numbers.
> As soon as you convert a number like 5.333... to binary, you lose
> something, since the binary notation is only base 2.

*nod*

> The usual thing I've seen done in money/measuring situations is to multiply
> all measurements by 100 or so (giving 2 decimal points accuracy), work and
> store those numbers, then divide by 100 before presenting results to the
> user (or perform fancy tricks with the formatting).

Yeah, but I believe they want the language to do it all for
you.  I was thinking that since Perl/MacPerl keeps
everything as strings in memory (as well as the other
formats) that it might be a good candidate for this area.

Question to Matthias: Does Perl loose accuracy in long
numbers?  Or maybe I should ask - if I had a string which
was 100 digits long - would Perl drop accuracy on this?

> >2. Accuracy in reading files (sequential and random).
> 
> *scratches head*
> 
> Are there any languages out there that *aren't* accurate in reading files?
<snip>

As I said - I needed to bring the thing in with me so I
could correctly state the requirements the guy laid out in
the magazine.

> >3. Decent built in sort routine (no losing of records).
> 
> Does PERL have a built in sort? I'll have to play with it and see how it's
> used... then I'll try losing some records.

Yes it does and I've never found it to lose records yet.
:-)  However, it doesn't do a numeric sort unless you write
a small function for it to call.  At least, in the previous
releases there wasn't a numerical sort.

> >4. Easily used/read.  (ie: Understandable by the average businessman).
> 
> Well... seeing as most PERL code I've seen would win hands down in a C/C++
<snip>
True.  :-)

> Most "average businessmen" I know would look at that statement and wonder
> why code is so expensive :-)  That requirement #4 can't even be met by
<snip>
*nod*

Well, I ran out of the house this morning and left the
stupid thing laying on the table.  :-(  I was trying to get
RayDream Studio to do something and it kept crashing on
me.  What for?  A memory allocation error.  Unlike MacPerl
(or Perl in general) - each module in RDS has it's own
allocation routine.  Maybe they should take a hint from the
#1 program in memory allocation (IMO) - Perl.

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