Limbo (was: Java Numerics)

[Guy Steele - Sun Microsystems Labs]

   From ehgabell-labs.com Fri Feb 14 11:20:12 1997

   ...   
   However, I would like to state two positions directly related to the
   current discussion.
   
   
   1.  Accurate binary/decimal conversion is absolutely essential to
   network computing, even if the heavy crunching is done on back-end
   servers in C or Fortran and only light-weight interactive work in
   the client.  Inferno has had it from day one, based on David Gay's
   excellent work which we've made freely available.  It puzzles me
   why Java has taken so long, but with Guy on the team surely it will
   happen.

Thanks for bringing this up!

The Java language specification requires accurate binary/decimal conversion;
any Java implementation that fails in this respect is incorrect.

David Gay's work is indeed excellent.  I consistently refer all inquiries
on this subject to his report and code, which are available from netlib.

--Guy