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Math errors in python

In python 2.3 (IDLE 1.0.3) running under windows 95, I get the
following types of errors whenever I do simple arithmetic:

1st example:
12.10 + 8.30 20.399999999999999 1.1 - 0.2 0.90000000000000013
2nd example(no errors here): bool(130.0 - 129.0 == 1.0) True
3rd example: a = 0.013
b = 0.0129
c = 0.0001
[a, b, c] [0.012999999999999999, 0.0129, 0.0001] bool((a - b) == c)

False
This sort of error is no big deal in most cases, but I'm sure it could
become a problem under certain conditions, particularly the 3rd
example, where I'm using truth testing. The same results occur in all
cases whether I define variables a, b, and c, or enter the values
directly into the bool statement. Also, it doesn't make a difference
whether "a = 0.013" or "a = 0.0130".

I haven't checked this under windows 2000 or XP, but I expect the same
thing would happen. Any suggestions for a way to fix this sort of
error?
Jul 18 '05
89 4995
Paul Rubin <http://ph****@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote in message news:<7x************@ruckus.brouhaha.com>...
Gary Herron <gh*****@islandtraining.com> writes:
Any representation of the infinity of numbers on a finite computer
*must* necessarily be unable to represent some (actually infinity
many) of those numbers. The inaccuracies stem from that fact.
Well, finite computers can't even represent all the integers, but
we can reasonably think of Python as capable of doing exact integer
arithmetic.

The issue here is that Python's behavior confuses the hell out of some
new users. There is a separate area of confusion, that

a = 2 / 3

sets a to 0,


That may confusing for non-C programmers, but it's easy to explain.
The real flaw of old-style division is that code like

def mean(seq):
return sum(seq) / len(seq)

subtly fails when seq happens to contain all integers, and you can't
even correctly use:

def mean(seq):
return 1.0 * sum(seq) / len(seq)

because it could lose accuracy if seq's elements were of a custom
high-precision numeric type that is closed under integer division but
gets coerced to float when multiplied by a float.
That doesn't solve the also very
common confusion that (1.0/3.0)*3.0 = 0.99999999.
What problem?
(1.0 / 3.0) * 3.0

1.0

The rounding error of multiplying 1/3 by 3 happens to exactly cancel
out that of dividing 1 by 3. It's an accident, but you can use it as
a quick argument against the "decimal arithmetic is always more
acurate" crowd.
Rational arithmetic can solve that.


Yes, it can, and imho it would be a good idea to use rational
arithmetic as the default for integer division (but _not_ as a general
replacement for float).
Jul 18 '05 #51
the problem with BCD or other 'decimal' computations is that it either
doesn't have the dynamic range of binary floating point (~ +-10**310)
or if it has unlimited digits then there is a LOT of software cranking
to do the math, whereas binary floating point is in the hardware. If
you want the language to use binary floating point (fast) but do the
rounding for you, then fine, but then you will have problems using it
for any real numerical task because the issue of rounding is very
important to numerical analysis, and is done different ways in
different cases. Every time the language runtime rounds for you, it is
introducing errors to your computations that you may or may not want.
There is a large body of knowledge surrounding the use of IEEE 754
floating point representation and if the language diverges from that
then users who want to do numerical analysis won't use it.

another question: do you want the math package to round for you, or do
you want the IO package to do it only when you print? You will get
different results from each. I could imagine a language runtime could
have a switch that tells it to automatically round the results for
you, either in the math or the IO.
Jul 18 '05 #52
[Paul Rubin]
I don't know that it's generally tractable to do exact computation on
constructive reals. How do you implement comparison (<, >, ==)?


Equality of constructive reals is undecidable. In practice, CR
packages allow specifying a "number of digits of evidence " parameter
N, so that equality is taken to mean "provably don't differ by more
than a unit in the N'th digit".
Jul 18 '05 #53
[Chris S.]
Sqrt is a fair criticism, but Pi equals 22/7, exactly the form this
arithmetic is meant for.


That's absurd. pi is 3, and nothing but grief comes from listening to
fancy-pants so-called "mathematicians" trying to convince you that
their inability to find integer results is an intellectual failing you
should share <wink>.
Jul 18 '05 #54
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 15:16:07 +1200, Paul Foley <se*@below.invalid> wrote:
On 19 Sep 2004 15:24:31 -0700, Dan Bishop wrote:
There are, of course, reasonably accurate rational approximations of
pi. For example, 355/113 (accurate to 6 decimal places), 312689/99532
(9 decimal places), or 3126535/995207 (11 decimal places). Also, the
IEEE 754 double-precision representation of pi is equal to the
rational number 4503599627370496/281474976710656.


I hope not! That's equal to 16. (The double float closest to) pi is
884279719003555/281474976710656

Amazingly, that is _exactly_ equal to math.pi
from ut.exactdec import ED
import math
ED('884279719003555/281474976710656') ED('3.14159265358979311599796346854418516159057617 1875') ED(math.pi,'all') ED('3.14159265358979311599796346854418516159057617 1875') ED('884279719003555/281474976710656') == ED(math.pi,'all') True
ED('884279719003555/281474976710656').astuple() (3141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875 L, 1L, -48) ED(math.pi,'all').astuple() (3141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875 L, 1L, -48)

So it's also equal to the rational number
3141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875 / 10**48
ED('3141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171 875' ... '/1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000' )
ED('3.14159265358979311599796346854418516159057617 1875')

or
ED('3141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171 875') / ED(10**48)

ED('3.14159265358979311599796346854418516159057617 1875')

Regards,
Bengt Richter
Jul 18 '05 #55
[Bengt Richter]
...
If you add a small Decimal delta repeatedly, will it get rounded away like the
floating point version,
Decimal *is* a floating-point type, containing most of IEEE 854 (the
radix-generalized variant of IEEE 754). It's got infinities, signed
zeroes, NaNs, ..., all that FP hair. Decimal specifies unnormalized
fp, though, so there's no special class of "denormal" values in
Decimal.
or will accuracy get promoted,


No, but the number of digits of precision is user-specifiable. In all
places this makes sense, the result of an operation is the exact
(infinite precision) mathematical result, rounded once to the current
context precision, according to the current context rounding mode. If
you want 100 digits, ask for 100 digits -- but you have to ask in
advance.
Jul 18 '05 #56
On 19 Sep 2004 15:24:31 -0700, da*****@yahoo.com (Dan Bishop) wrote:
Also, the
IEEE 754 double-precision representation of pi is equal to the
rational number 4503599627370496/281474976710656.
I know the real uses of a precise pi are not that many... but
isn't that a quite raw approximation ? that fraction equals 16...
Base 10 _is_ more accurate for monetary amounts, and for this reason I
agreed with the addition of a decimal class. But it would be a
mistake to use decimal arithmetic, which has a performance
disadvantage with no accuracy advantage, in the general case.


For monetary computation why not using fixed point instead
(i.e. integers representing the number of thousands of cents,
for example) ? IMO using floating point instead of something
like arbitrary precision integers is looking for trouble in
that area as often what is required is accuracy up to a
specified fraction of the unit.

Andrea

PS: From a study seems that 75.7% of people tends to believe
more in messages that contain precise numbers (like 75.7%).
Jul 18 '05 #57
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 01:07:03 -0400, Tim Peters <ti********@gmail.com>
wrote:
[Chris S.]
Sqrt is a fair criticism, but Pi equals 22/7, exactly the form this
arithmetic is meant for.


That's absurd. pi is 3, and nothing but grief comes from listening to
fancy-pants so-called "mathematicians" trying to convince you that
their inability to find integer results is an intellectual failing you
should share <wink>.


This is from the Bible...

007:023 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the
other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits:
and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.

So it's clear that pi must be 3

Andrea
Jul 18 '05 #58
Uncle Tim:
That's absurd. pi is 3


Personally I've found that pie is usually round, though
if you're talking price I agree -- I can usually get a
slice for about $3, more like $3.14 with tax. I like
mine apple, with a bit of ice cream.

Strange spelling though.

Andrew
da***@dalkescientific.com
Jul 18 '05 #59
Andrea:
This is from the Bible...

007:023 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the
other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits:
and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.

So it's clear that pi must be 3


Or that the walls were 0.25 cubits thick, if you're talking
inner diameter vs. outer. ;)

Andrew
da***@dalkescientific.com
Jul 18 '05 #60
Andrew Dalke <ad****@mindspring.com> wrote:
Uncle Tim:
That's absurd. pi is 3


Personally I've found that pie is usually round, though
if you're talking price I agree -- I can usually get a
slice for about $3, more like $3.14 with tax. I like
mine apple, with a bit of ice cream.

Strange spelling though.


Yeah, everybody knows it's spelled "py"!
Alex
Jul 18 '05 #61
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 01:07:03 -0400, Tim Peters wrote:
[Chris S.]
Sqrt is a fair criticism, but Pi equals 22/7, exactly the form this
arithmetic is meant for.
That's absurd. pi is 3,


Except in Indiana, where it's 4, of course.

--
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good,
you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
-- Howard Aiken
(setq reply-to
(concatenate 'string "Paul Foley " "<mycroft" '(#\@) "actrix.gen.nz>"))
Jul 18 '05 #62
On 20 Sep 2004 02:08:54 +0200, Johan Ur Riise wrote:
There is not much of a precision/speed tradoff in Common Lisp, you can
use fractional numbers (which give you exact results with operations
+, -, * and /) internally and round them off to decimal before
display. With the OP's example: (+ 1210/100 830/100)
102/5 (coerce * 'float)
20.4 Integers can have unlimited number of digits, but the precision of
floats and reals are still limited to what the hardware can do, so if


Most CL implementations only support the hardware float types, that's
true, but it's not required by the spec.

CLISP's long-float has arbitrary precision (set by the user in
advance).

[And the Common Lisp type named "real" is the union of floats and
rationals; they're certainly not limited by hardware support]
--
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good,
you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
-- Howard Aiken
(setq reply-to
(concatenate 'string "Paul Foley " "<mycroft" '(#\@) "actrix.gen.nz>"))
Jul 18 '05 #63
al*****@yahoo.com (Alex Martelli) wrote in news:1gkdncx.kyq0oz1excwtyN%
al*****@yahoo.com:

Nothing strange there -- HP's calculators were squarely aimed at
scientists and engineers, who are supposed to know what they're doing
when it comes to numeric computation (they mostly _don't_, but they like
to kid themselves that they do!-).


Oi!!! I resemble that remark !

;-)
Jul 18 '05 #64
Frithiof Andreas Jensen
<fr*************@diespammerdie.jensen.tdcadsl.dk > wrote:
al*****@yahoo.com (Alex Martelli) wrote in news:1gkdncx.kyq0oz1excwtyN%
al*****@yahoo.com:
Nothing strange there -- HP's calculators were squarely aimed at
scientists and engineers, who are supposed to know what they're doing
when it comes to numeric computation (they mostly _don't_, but they like
to kid themselves that they do!-).


Oi!!! I resemble that remark !

;-)


OK, I should have used first person plural to count myself in, since,
after all, I _am_ an engineer...: _we_ mostly don't, but we like to kid
ourselves that we do!-)
Alex
Jul 18 '05 #65
Am Sonntag, 19. September 2004 19:41 schrieb Alex Martelli:
gmpy (or to be more precise the underlying GMP library) runs optimally
on AMD Athlon 32-bit processors, which happen to be dirt cheap these
days, so a cleverly-purchased 300-dollars desktop Linux PC using such an
Athlon chip would no doubt let you use way more than these humble couple
thousand bits for such interactive computations while maintaining a
perfectly acceptable interactive response time.


But still, no algorithm implemented in software will ever beat the
FADD/FMUL/FDIV/FPOW/FSIN/FCOS etc. instructions in runtime, that was my
point... And error calculation is always possible, so that you can give
bounds to your result, even when using normal floating point arithmetic. And,
even when using GMPy, you have to know about the underlying limitations of
binary floating point so that you can reorganize your code if need be to add
precision (because one calculation might be much less precise if done in some
way than in another).

Heiko.
Jul 18 '05 #66
bo**@oz.net (Bengt Richter) wrote in message news:<ci*************************@theriver.com>...
On 19 Sep 2004 15:24:31 -0700, da*****@yahoo.com (Dan Bishop) wrote:
[...]
There are, of course, reasonably accurate rational approximations of
pi. For example, 355/113 (accurate to 6 decimal places), 312689/99532
(9 decimal places), or 3126535/995207 (11 decimal places). Also, the
IEEE 754 double-precision representation of pi is equal to the
rational number 4503599627370496/281474976710656.
>>> divmod(4503599627370496,281474976710656)

(16L, 0L)

a little glitch somewhere ? ;-)


Oops. I meant 884279719003555/281474976710656.
Jul 18 '05 #67
Heiko Wundram <he*****@ceosg.de> wrote:
Am Sonntag, 19. September 2004 19:41 schrieb Alex Martelli:
gmpy (or to be more precise the underlying GMP library) runs optimally
on AMD Athlon 32-bit processors, which happen to be dirt cheap these
days, so a cleverly-purchased 300-dollars desktop Linux PC using such an
Athlon chip would no doubt let you use way more than these humble couple
thousand bits for such interactive computations while maintaining a
perfectly acceptable interactive response time.
But still, no algorithm implemented in software will ever beat the
FADD/FMUL/FDIV/FPOW/FSIN/FCOS etc. instructions in runtime, that was my


Yep, the hardware would have to be designed in a very lousy way for its
instructions to run slower than software running on the same CPU;-).

If you're not using some "vectorized" package such as Numeric or
numarray, though, it's unlikely that you care about speed -- and if you
_are_ using Numeric or numarray, it doesn't matter to you what type
Python itself uses for some literal such as 3.17292 -- it only matters
(speedwise) what your computational package is using (single precision,
double precision, whatever).
point... And error calculation is always possible, so that you can give
bounds to your result, even when using normal floating point arithmetic. And,
Sure! Your problems come when the bounds you compute are not good
enough for your purposes (given how deucedly loose error-interval
computations tend to be, that's going to happen more often than actual
accuracy loss in your computations... try an interval-arithmetic package
some day, to see what I mean...).
even when using GMPy, you have to know about the underlying limitations of
binary floating point so that you can reorganize your code if need be to add
precision (because one calculation might be much less precise if done in some
way than in another).


Sure. Throwing more precision at a badly analyzed and structured
algorithm is putting a band-aid on a wound. I _have_ taught numeric
analysis to undergrads and nobody could have passed my course unless
they had learned to quote that "party line" back at me, obviously.

In the real world, the band-aid stops the blood loss often enough that
few practising engineers and scientists are seriously motivated to
remember and apply all they've learned in their numeric analysis courses
(assuming they HAVE taken some: believe it or not, it IS quite possible
to get a degree in engineering, physics, etc, in most places, without
even getting ONE course in numeric analysis! the university where I
taught was an exception only for _some_ of the degrees they granted --
you couldn't graduate in _materials_ engineering without that course,
for example, but you COULD graduate in _buildings_ engineering while
bypassing it...).

Yes, this IS a problem. But I don't know what to do about it -- after
all, I _am_ quite prone to taking such shortcuts myself... if some
computation is giving me results that smell wrong, I just do it over
with 10 or 100 times more bits... yeah, I _do_ know that will only work
99.99% of the time, leaving a serious problem, possibly hidden and
unsuspected, more often than one can be comfortable with. In my case, I
have excuses -- I'm more likely to have fallen into some subtle trap of
_statistics_, making my precise computations pretty meaningless anyway,
than to be doing perfectly correct statistics in numerically smelly ways
(hey, I _have_ been brought up, as an example of falling into traps, in
"American Statistician", but not yet, AFAIK, in any journal dealing with
numerical analysis...:-).
Alex
Jul 18 '05 #68
Andrew Dalke <ad****@mindspring.com> wrote in message news:<QV*****************@newsread1.news.pas.earth link.net>...
Andrea:
This is from the Bible...

007:023 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the
other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits:
and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.

So it's clear that pi must be 3


Or that the walls were 0.25 cubits thick, if you're talking
inner diameter vs. outer. ;)


Or it could be 9.60 cubits across and 30.16 cubits around, and the
numbers are rounded to the nearest cubit.

Also, I've heard that the original Hebrew uses an uncommon spelling of
the word for "line" or "circumference". Perhaps that affects the
meaning.
Jul 18 '05 #69
On 2004-09-20, david h <da***@dmh2000.com> wrote:
the problem with BCD or other 'decimal' computations is that it either
doesn't have the dynamic range of binary floating point (~ +-10**310)


Huh? Why would BCD floating point have any less range than
binary floating point? Due to the space inefficiencies of BCD,
it would take a few more bits to cover the same range, but I
don't see your point.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! Hey, LOOK!! A pair of
at SIZE 9 CAPRI PANTS!! They
visi.com probably belong to SAMMY
DAVIS, JR.!!
Jul 18 '05 #70
On 2004-09-20, Andrea Griffini <ag****@tin.it> wrote:
This is from the Bible...

007:023 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the
other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits:
and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.

So it's clear that pi must be 3


If you've only got 1 significant digit in your measured values,
then Pi == 3 is a prefectly reasonable value to use.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! Why is everything
at made of Lycra Spandex?
visi.com
Jul 18 '05 #71
On 20 Sep 2004 14:34:03 GMT, Grant Edwards <gr****@visi.com> declaimed
the following in comp.lang.python:
On 2004-09-20, david h <da***@dmh2000.com> wrote:
the problem with BCD or other 'decimal' computations is that it either
doesn't have the dynamic range of binary floating point (~ +-10**310)
Huh? Why would BCD floating point have any less range than
binary floating point? Due to the space inefficiencies of BCD,
it would take a few more bits to cover the same range, but I
don't see your point.


There /was/ an "or" in that sentence, which you trimmed out...

Though working with numbers that are stored in >150 bytes
doesn't interest me. Uhm, actually, to handle the +/- exponent range,
make that 300+ bytes (150+ bytes before the decimal, and the same after
it). As soon as you start storing an exponent as a separate component
you introduce a loss of precision in computations.
-- ================================================== ============ <
wl*****@ix.netcom.com | Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber KD6MOG <
wu******@dm.net | Bestiaria Support Staff <
================================================== ============ <
Home Page: <http://www.dm.net/~wulfraed/> <
Overflow Page: <http://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/> <

Jul 18 '05 #72
On 2004-09-20, Dennis Lee Bieber <wl*****@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
On 20 Sep 2004 14:34:03 GMT, Grant Edwards <gr****@visi.com> declaimed
the following in comp.lang.python:
On 2004-09-20, david h <da***@dmh2000.com> wrote:
> the problem with BCD or other 'decimal' computations is that it either
> doesn't have the dynamic range of binary floating point (~ +-10**310)
Huh? Why would BCD floating point have any less range than
binary floating point? Due to the space inefficiencies of
BCD, it would take a few more bits to cover the same range,
but I don't see your point.


There /was/ an "or" in that sentence, which you trimmed out...


Sorry about that, but I wasn't addressing the other complaint,
just the lack of range part.
Though working with numbers that are stored in >150 bytes
doesn't interest me. Uhm, actually, to handle the +/- exponent
range, make that 300+ bytes (150+ bytes before the decimal,
and the same after it).
To get the same range and precision as a 32-bit IEEE, you need
4 bytes for mantissa and 2 for the exponent. That's 6 bytes,
not 300.
As soon as you start storing an exponent as a separate
component you introduce a loss of precision in computations.


I thought you were complaining about range and storage required
for BCD vs. binary.

Floating point BCD can have the same range and precision and
binary floating point with about a 50% penalty in storage
space.

If you're going to compare fixed point verses floating point,
that's a completely separate (and orthogonal) issue.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! Let's send the
at Russians defective
visi.com lifestyle accessories!
Jul 18 '05 #73
"Chris S." <ch*****@NOSPAM.udel.edu> wrote in message news:<70b3d.1822$uz1.747@trndny03>...
I just find
it funny how a $20 calculator can be more accurate than Python running
on a $1000 Intel machine.


Actually, if you look at Intel's track record, it isn't that surprising.

How many Intel Pentium engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
Three. One to screw in the bulb, and one to hold the ladder.

--
CARL BANKS
Jul 18 '05 #74
On 2004-09-21, Carl Banks <im*****@aerojockey.com> wrote:
"Chris S." <ch*****@NOSPAM.udel.edu> wrote in message news:<70b3d.1822$uz1.747@trndny03>...
I just find
it funny how a $20 calculator can be more accurate than Python running
on a $1000 Intel machine.


Actually, if you look at Intel's track record, it isn't that surprising.

How many Intel Pentium engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
Three. One to screw in the bulb, and one to hold the ladder.


Intel, where quality is Job 0.9999999997.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! My CODE of ETHICS
at is vacationing at famed
visi.com SCHROON LAKE in upstate
New York!!
Jul 18 '05 #75
Grant Edwards said unto the world upon 2004-09-21 16:12:
On 2004-09-21, Carl Banks <im*****@aerojockey.com> wrote:
"Chris S." <ch*****@NOSPAM.udel.edu> wrote in message news:<70b3d.1822$uz1.747@trndny03>...
I just find
it funny how a $20 calculator can be more accurate than Python running
on a $1000 Intel machine.


Actually, if you look at Intel's track record, it isn't that surprising.

How many Intel Pentium engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
Three. One to screw in the bulb, and one to hold the ladder.

Intel, where quality is Job 0.9999999997.


Since we're playing:

Why'd Intel call it the Pentium chip?

'Cause they added 100 to 486 and got 585.999999999989

Brian vdB

Jul 18 '05 #76
Peter Otten wrote:
Paul Rubin wrote:
I haven't tried 2.4 yet. After


The auther is currently working on an installer, but just dropping it into
2.3's site-packages should work, too.


I just dropped decimal.py from 2.4's Lib dir into 2.3.4's Lib dir.
Seems to work. Any gotchas with this route?

By the way, I got decimal.py revision 1.24 from CVS several days ago
and noted a speedup of over an order of magnitude -- almost
twenty-five times faster with this simple snippet calculating a square
root to 500 decimal places. :-)

[On Win98SE:]

| from time import clock
| from decimal import *
|
| a = Decimal('18974018374087403187404701740918.74817040 84710473048017483047104')
| t = clock()
| b = a.sqrt(Context(prec=500))
|
| print "Time: ", clock()-t
| print "b =", b

With decimal.py from 2.4a3.2 dropped into 2.3.4's Lib dir:

| IDLE 1.0.3
| >>> ================================ RESTART ================================
| >>>
| Time: 7.40197958397
| b = 4355917627100793.0054682072286...[elided]...67722472416430409564807807874919604463
| >>>

With decimal.py from CVS (revision 1.24) in 2.3.4's Lib dir:

| IDLE 1.0.3
| >>> ================================ RESTART ================================
| >>>
| Time: 0.300008380965
| b = 4355917627100793.0054682072286...[elided]...67722472416430409564807807874919604463
| >>>

For a check, I did:

| >>> setcontext(Context(prec=500))
| >>> b * b
| Decimal("18974018374087403187404701740918.74817040 8471047304801748304710400...[lotsa zeroes]...00")

Pretty damn impressive! -- Try it, you'll like it!

Good job to the crew for Decimal and the latest optimizations!
now-I-just-need-atan[2]()-ly y'rs,
Richard Hanson

--
sick<PERI0D>old<P0INT>fart<PIE-DEC0-SYMB0L>newsguy<MARK>com
Jul 18 '05 #77
Richard Hanson <me@privacy.net> wrote:
Peter Otten wrote:
Paul Rubin wrote:
I haven't tried 2.4 yet. After


The auther is currently working on an installer, but just dropping it into
2.3's site-packages should work, too.


I just dropped decimal.py from 2.4's Lib dir into 2.3.4's Lib dir.
Seems to work. Any gotchas with this route?


None that I know of. Indeed, the author originally wanted to have that
approach as the one and only way to use decimal with 2.3, I just made
myself a nuisance to him insisting that many inexperienced Pythonistas
would have been frigthened to even try that, so finally he packaged
things up when he realized it would take less of his time than putting
up with yet another whining email from me;-).
Alex
Jul 18 '05 #78
Alex Martelli wrote:
Richard Hanson <me@privacy.net> wrote:
Peter Otten wrote:
The auther is currently working on an installer, but just dropping it into
2.3's site-packages should work, too.
I just dropped decimal.py from 2.4's Lib dir into 2.3.4's Lib dir.
Seems to work. Any gotchas with this route?


None that I know of.


Good to hear. My interest (besides my Pathfinder project which I
introduced in another [OT] thread :-) ), also is in developing
continuing improvements to my COGO software (despite my being retired
for many years and having no personal need for such).

(Now that I note the substantial speedup in CVS of Decimal's sqrt(), I
am getting interested once again in getting back to my COGO-in-Python
project [when I get a chance :-) ], and see just what success I have
working up a relatively fast arctangent function.[1] Besides an
arctangent function, a COGO-using-Decimal also needs to have pi
available to an arbitrary number of decimal places. My sketches
heretofore used precalculated values of pi to a ridiculous number of
decimal places in string form, from which a simple slice would give
the requisite value as the current Context may require. [Decimal's
help files include snippets for some simpler versions of sine and
cosine, and thus, tangent. If I get the chance -- and the ability to
comprehend the state-of-the-art as referenced in my footnote -- to
implement a fast arctangent function in Decimal, similarly implemented
algorithms should also speed up sine and cosine.][2])
Indeed, the author originally wanted to have that
approach as the one and only way to use decimal with 2.3, I just made
myself a nuisance to him insisting that many inexperienced Pythonistas
would have been frigthened to even try that, so finally he packaged
things up when he realized it would take less of his time than putting
up with yet another whining email from me;-).


Heh. I, for one, have greatly enjoyed reading your posts over the
years. I think that you are correct in that *non*-computer folks --
arguably part of a target audience for Python -- can be easily
frightened by the complexity of the abstractions common in compsci. It
is part of Guido's genius that he recognizes such; he has aimed to
keep Python accessible to non-programmer-types (Donald Knuth estimated
that only about one-percent of humans even have the proper brain
organization to be potential programmers, but I digest. :-) ) even as
fancier, but quite powerful, complexity-controlling enhancements such
as generators are added to the language.

In any event, thanks for the comments! Keep up the good work and the
posting!
enjoying-reading-the-postings-'ly y'rs,
Richard Hanson
_____________________________________
[1] I've skimmed R. P. Brent's work, but haven't yet found the time to
understand all of it well enough to develop the requisite trig
functions in Python's Decimal.

[2] Traditionally, the precision of generic eight-byte floating point
types has been sufficient for COGO. However, now, with the advancement
in cheap-but-powerful computing power, and with the prevalence of GPS,
such things as the Kalman Filter and other iterative matrix algorithms
now require BIGNUM decimal places to avoid degenerate solutions near
singularities and such.[3]

[3] I caution that I am an autodidact, and may sound more educated
than I actually am. ;-)

--
sick<PERI0D>old<P0INT>fart<PIE-DEC0-SYMB0L>newsguy<MARK>com
Jul 18 '05 #79
Radioactive Man wrote:
Thanks to all for info here. Sorry for inadvertently creating such a
long thread.

Please don't feel you need to apologize. These guys enjoy discussing
such abstract, theoretical complexities - that's why they're so good at
what they do!

Hope that you did get your question answered along the way. If you have
more questions, please post them. You may also consider posting to the
Python Tutor mailing list <tu***@python.org>, where they are geared more
specifically to answering newbie questions (rather than debating the
intricacies of Pi).

Welcome and enjoy Python!

Anna
--
Whaddya mean - Pie are squared?
Pie aren't square - pie are round.
*Cake* are square.
Jul 18 '05 #80
Note: I posted a response yesterday, but it apparently never appeared (I
was having some trouble with my newsreader) so I'm posting this now. My
apologies if it is a duplicate.

Alex Martelli wrote:
Paul Rubin <http://ph****@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:
...
The issue here is that Python's behavior confuses the hell out of some
new users. There is a separate area of confusion, that

a = 2 / 3

sets a to 0, and to clear that up, the // operator was introduced and
Python 3.0 will supposedly treat / as floating-point division even
when both operands are integers. That doesn't solve the also very
common confusion that (1.0/3.0)*3.0 = 0.99999999. Rational arithmetic
can solve that.

Yes, but applying rational arithmetic by default might slow some
computations far too much for beginners' liking! My favourite for
Python 3.0 would be to have decimals by default, with special notations
to request floats and rationals (say '1/3r' for a rational, '1/3f' for a
float, '1/3' or '1/3d' for a decimal with some default parameters such
as number of digits). This is because my guess is that most naive users
would _expect_ decimals by default...


I agree. Naive (eg, non-CS, non-Mathemetician/Engineer) users who grew
up with calculators and standard math courses in school may have never
even heard of floats! (I made it as far as Calculus 2 in college, but
still had never heard of them.)

This brings me to another issue. Often c.l.py folks seem surprised that
people don't RTFM about floats before they ask about why their math
calculations aren't working. Most of the folks asking have no idea they
are *doing* float arithmetic, so when they try to google for the answer,
or look in the docs for the answer, and skip right past the "Float
Arithmetic" section of the FAQ and the Tutorial, it's because they're
not DOING float arithmetic - that they know of... So, of course they
won't read those sections to look for their answer, any more than they'd
read the Complex Number calculations section... People who know about
floats con't need that section - the ones who do need it, con't know
they need it.

If you want people to find those sections when they are looking for
answers to why their math calculations aren't working - I suggest you
remove the "FLOAT" from the title. Something in the FAQ like: "Why are
my math calculations giving weird or unexpected results?" would attract
a lot more of the people you WANT to read it. Once you've roped them in,
*then* you can explain to them about floats...

Anna Martelli Ravenscroft
Jul 18 '05 #81
Anna Martelli Ravenscroft wrote:
If you want people to find those sections when they are looking for
answers to why their math calculations aren't working - I suggest you
remove the "FLOAT" from the title. Something in the FAQ like: "Why are
my math calculations giving weird or unexpected results?" would attract
a lot more of the people you WANT to read it. Once you've roped them in,
*then* you can explain to them about floats...


Excellent point.

(Or, "+1" as the "oldbies" say. ;-) )

Nice to "meet" you, too -- welcome! (Even if I'm primarily only a
lurker.)

(Alex mentioned you have a Fujitsu LifeBook -- I do, too, and like it
very much!)

---

[Note: I am having equipment and connectivity problems. I'll be back
as I can when I get things sorted out better, and as appropriate (or
inappropriate ;-) ). Thanks to you and to all for the civil
and fun discussions!]
Richard Hanson

--
sick<PERI0D>old<P0INT>fart<PIE-DEC0-SYMB0L>newsguy<MARK>com
Jul 18 '05 #82
Richard Hanson <me@privacy.net> wrote:
...
(Alex mentioned you have a Fujitsu LifeBook -- I do, too, and like it
very much!)


There are many 'series' of such "Lifebooks" nowadays -- it's become as
un-descriptive as Sony's "Vaio" brand or IBM's "Thinkpad". Anna's is a
P-Series -- 10.5" wide-form screen, incredibly tiny, light, VERY
long-lasting batteries. It was the _only_ non-Apple computer around at
the local MacDay (I'm a Mac fan, and she attended too, to keep an eye on
me I suspect...;-), yet it got nothing but admiring "ooh!"s from the
crowd of design-obsessed Machies (Apple doesn't make any laptop smaller
than 12", sigh...).

OBCLPY: Python runs just as wonderfully on her tiny P-Series as on my
iBook, even though only Apple uses it within the OS itself;-)
Alex
Jul 18 '05 #83
[Connection working again...?]

Alex Martelli wrote:
Richard Hanson <me@privacy.net> wrote:
...
(Alex mentioned you have a Fujitsu LifeBook -- I do, too, and like it
very much!)
There are many 'series' of such "Lifebooks" nowadays -- it's become as
un-descriptive as Sony's "Vaio" brand or IBM's "Thinkpad". Anna's is a
P-Series -- 10.5" wide-form screen, incredibly tiny, light, VERY
long-lasting batteries.


Ahem. As I said ;-) in my reply to your post mentioning Anna's P2000
(in my MID: <lg********************************@4ax.com>), and in
earlier postings re 2.4x installation difficulties, mine is a Fujitsu
LifeBook P1120. (Sorry, Alex! I definitely *should* have mentioned the
model again -- I'm just beginning to appreciate the difficulty of even
*partially* keeping up with c.l.py. I'm learning, though. :-) )

In any event, the Fujitsu LifeBook P1120 has a 8.9" wide-format
screen, is 2.2lbs.-light with the smaller *very* long-lasting battery
and 2.5lbs.-light with the very, *very* long-lasting battery, and has
-- what tipped the scales, as it were, for my needs -- a touchscreen
and stylus.
It was the _only_ non-Apple computer around at
the local MacDay (I'm a Mac fan, and she attended too, to keep an eye on
me I suspect...;-), yet it got nothing but admiring "ooh!"s from the
crowd of design-obsessed Machies (Apple doesn't make any laptop smaller
than 12", sigh...).
I can feel your pain. I would switch to Apple in a second if they had
such light models (and if I had the bucks ;-) ). I need a very light
machine for reasons specified earlier. (Okay, slightly reluctantly:
Explicit may be better even with *this* particular info -- I have
arthritis [ankylosing spondylitis] and need very light laptops to read
and write with. :-) )
OBCLPY: Python runs just as wonderfully on her tiny P-Series as on my
iBook, even though only Apple uses it within the OS itself;-)


ObC.l.pyFollow-up: Python also runs very well on my tinier ;-) P1120
with the Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 processor running at 800MHz and with
256MB RAM and a 256KB L2 on-chip cache -- even using Win2k. :-) It's
really nice not needing a fan on a laptop, as well -- even when
calculating Decimal's sqrt() to thousands of decimal places. ;-)

ObExplicit-metacomment: I'm only attempting a mixture of info *and*
levity. :-)
what?-men-arguing-about-whose-is-*tinier*?!'ly y'rs,
Richard Hanson

--
sick<PERI0D>old<P0INT>fart<PIE-DEC0-SYMB0L>newsguy<MARK>com
Jul 18 '05 #84
In article <ad********************************@4ax.com>,
Richard Hanson <me@privacy.net> wrote:
[Connection working again...?]

Alex Martelli wrote:
Richard Hanson <me@privacy.net> wrote:
...
> (Alex mentioned you have a Fujitsu LifeBook -- I do, too, and like it
> very much!)

Jul 18 '05 #85
Cameron Laird wrote:
In article <ad********************************@4ax.com>,
Richard Hanson <me@privacy.net> wrote [comparing
Anna Martelli Ravenscroft's Fujitsu LifeBook P2000 to my
(Richard Hanson's) Fujitsu LifeBook P1120]:
[...]

In any event, the Fujitsu LifeBook P1120 has a 8.9" wide-format
screen, is 2.2lbs.-light with the smaller *very* long-lasting battery
and 2.5lbs.-light with the very, *very* long-lasting battery, and has
-- what tipped the scales, as it were, for my needs -- a touchscreen
and stylus.

[...]

Alex Martelli wrote:
OBCLPY: Python runs just as wonderfully on her tiny P-Series as on my
iBook, even though only Apple uses it within the OS itself;-)
ObC.l.pyFollow-up: Python also runs very well on my tinier ;-) P1120
with the Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 processor running at 800MHz and with
256MB RAM and a 256KB L2 on-chip cache -- even using Win2k. :-) It's
really nice not needing a fan on a laptop, as well -- even when
calculating Decimal's sqrt() to thousands of decimal places. ;-)

.
.
.
Is Linux practical on these boxes?


I've found on the web accounts of two people, at least, getting the
P1120 working with Linux and with at least partial functionality of
the touchscreen -- one individual claimed full functionality. (I found
some accounts of success with getting Linux working on the P2000, as
well.) I'm currently waiting to purchase a new harddrive for my P1120
to see for myself if I can get Linux installed with the touchscreen
fully functioning -- which, as I mentioned in my post, is particularly
important to me.
How do touch-typists like them


I've been touch-typing since I was about nine-years-old. When I was
looking for a very light laptop for reasons mentioned in my post, I
was concerned that I wouldn't be able to touch-type on the ~85% (16mm
pitch) keyboard. I went to a local "big box" computer store (who shall
remain nameless) and tried one of the P1120s -- within seconds I
realized I could easily adapt and subsequently ordered one from
Fujitsu.

I would estimate that I was typing *faster* and with substantially
*fewer* errors inside of several weeks -- and occasional uses of the
standard-sized keyboard on my HP Omnibook 900B made me feel like a
Munchkin. :-)

Now that I'm temporarily back on the standard-pitch Omnibook 900B, I
have adapted to the what-had-come-to-seem-a-humongous keyboard, once
again. I most definitely prefer the P1120's keyboard.

I note that on the P1120, I could reach difficult key-combinations
much easier, and also, that I could often hold down two keys of a
three-key combo, say, with one finger or thumb.

Your mileage may vary, as they say, but I now prefer smaller
keyboards.

The "instant on-off" works very well, too. I highly recommend the
P1120 for anyone who isn't put off by the smaller keyboard. (Drawing
on the screen with the stylus is pretty trick, as well.)
Richard Hanson

--
sick<PERI0D>old<P0INT>fart<PIE-DEC0-SYMB0L>newsguy<MARK>com
Jul 18 '05 #86
Cameron Laird <cl****@lairds.us> wrote:
...
Is Linux practical on these boxes?
Never got 'sleep' to work (there's supposed to be a 'hybernate' thingy,
but I haven't found it to work reliably either). AFAIMC, that's the
biggie; everything else is fine.
How do touch-typists like them


Just fine (the 10.5" P2000 -- can't speak for the even-smaller P1000s).
Alex
Jul 18 '05 #87
Cameron Laird wrote:
In article <ad********************************@4ax.com>,
Richard Hanson <me@privacy.net> wrote:
[Connection working again...?]

Alex Martelli wrote:

Richard Hanson <me@privacy.net> wrote:
...

(Alex mentioned you have a Fujitsu LifeBook -- I do, too, and like it
very much!)


.
.
.
Ahem. As I said ;-) in my reply to your post mentioning Anna's P2000
(in my MID: <lg********************************@4ax.com>), and in
earlier postings re 2.4x installation difficulties, mine is a Fujitsu
LifeBook P1120. (Sorry, Alex! I definitely *should* have mentioned the
model again -- I'm just beginning to appreciate the difficulty of even
*partially* keeping up with c.l.py. I'm learning, though. :-) )

In any event, the Fujitsu LifeBook P1120 has a 8.9" wide-format
screen, is 2.2lbs.-light with the smaller *very* long-lasting battery
and 2.5lbs.-light with the very, *very* long-lasting battery, and has
-- what tipped the scales, as it were, for my needs -- a touchscreen
and stylus.


.
.
.
I can feel your pain. I would switch to Apple in a second if they had
such light models (and if I had the bucks ;-) ). I need a very light
machine for reasons specified earlier. (Okay, slightly reluctantly:
Explicit may be better even with *this* particular info -- I have
arthritis [ankylosing spondylitis] and need very light laptops to read
and write with. :-) )

OBCLPY: Python runs just as wonderfully on her tiny P-Series as on my
iBook, even though only Apple uses it within the OS itself;-)


ObC.l.pyFollow-up: Python also runs very well on my tinier ;-) P1120
with the Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 processor running at 800MHz and with
256MB RAM and a 256KB L2 on-chip cache -- even using Win2k. :-) It's
really nice not needing a fan on a laptop, as well -- even when
calculating Decimal's sqrt() to thousands of decimal places. ;-)


.
.
.
Is Linux practical on these boxes? How do touch-typists like them


Well, mine is dual boot. I'm currently experimenting with Ubuntu on my
Linux partition... I'm really REALLY hoping for a linux kernel with a
decent 'sleep' function to come up RSN because I despise having to work
in Windoze XP instead of Linux. Ah well, at least the XP hasn't been too
terrible to work on - it runs surprisingly smoothly, particularly with
Firefox and Thunderbird for browsing and email...

And I can touch type just fine - except for the damn capslock key (there
is NO purpose whatsoever for a capslock key as a standalone key on a
modern keyboard, imho). I've had only minor problems with the touch
typing that I do - and that, only due to the slightly different layout
of the SHIFT key on the right side compared to where I'd normally expect
to find it: keyboard layout is a common bugbear on laptops though,
regardless of size....

Anna
Jul 18 '05 #88
Anna Martelli Ravenscroft wrote:

[This post primarily contains solutions to Anna's problem with the
Fujitsu LifeBook P2000's key locations. But, there's also some 2.4x
MSI Installer anecdotal info in my footnote.]
Cameron Laird wrote:
Is Linux practical on these boxes? How do touch-typists like them
Well, mine is dual boot. I'm currently experimenting with Ubuntu on my
Linux partition... I'm really REALLY hoping for a linux kernel with a
decent 'sleep' function to come up RSN because I despise having to work
in Windoze XP instead of Linux. Ah well, at least the XP hasn't been too
terrible to work on - it runs surprisingly smoothly, particularly with
Firefox and Thunderbird for browsing and email...


My Fujitsu LifeBook P1120 is (was) only single-booting Win2k, so I
can't help with the Linux "sleep" function as yet -- I'll be working
on dual-booting Win2k and Linux on the P1120 as soon as I get the
requisite hardware to rebuild things. The "sleep" function is a *very*
high priority for me, so if and when I find a solution, I'll post it
if you're still needing such -- may well work for your P2000 as well.
And I can touch type just fine - except for the damn capslock key (there
is NO purpose whatsoever for a capslock key as a standalone key on a
modern keyboard, imho).
It seems *many* folks agree; read below.
I've had only minor problems with the touch
typing that I do - and that, only due to the slightly different layout
of the SHIFT key on the right side compared to where I'd normally expect
to find it: keyboard layout is a common bugbear on laptops though,
regardless of size....


[I lost all my recent archives in a recent series of "crashes" -- so I
regoogled this morning for the info herein.]

On Win2k, and claimed for WinXP, one can manually edit the registry to
remap any of the keys. I originally did this on my P1120 with Win2k.
Worked just fine.

(I had saved to disc before a Win98SE crash just a few minutes ago
;-), the manual regedit values. If you're interested in 'em you may
post here or contact me off-group. The email addie below works if
unmunged -- ObExplicit: replace the angle-bracketed items with the
appropriate symbol.)

Also, there are tools available from both MS, and for those who don't
like to visit MS ;-), free from many other helpful folks.

If my memory serves, I liked best the (freeware, I believe) tool
KeyTweak:

<http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/KeyTweak_install.exe>

available from this page:

<http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick>

---

MS's tool is Remapkey.exe. (NB: I have not tried this tool --
*usually* my firewall blocks MS :-) [which required an unblocking to
install 2.4ax because of the new MSI Installer[1] :-) ].) This tool
may already be on one of your MS CDs in the reskit dirs (I haven't
looked in mine).

In any event, one webpage:

<http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1014389848>

describes Remapkey.exe as:

"... a nifty tool put out by microsoft (sic). Make sure you get the
correct version for your OS. Not resource intensive like other dll
apps."

The page has these links (quoted herein):

For individual downloads:
<http://www.dynawell.com/support/ResKit/winxp.asp>

Free from Microsoft site, for full downloads
<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&displaylang=en>

or shorter link:
<http://www.petri.co.il/download_windows_2003_reskit_tools.htm>

---

I also have links to a few other freeware (some open-source) tools for
all versions of Win32. I won't add them now, but repost or contact me
if you want more info from my research.

---

Additionally, I found many solutions for Linux, but haven't
investigated those as (as I said) I have not yet installed Linux on my
Fujitsu LifeBook P1120. Again, if you have trouble locating a Linux
key-remapping method, let me know as I found lots of links for the
better OS :-), as well.

(I do note that after several reinstalls on the P1120, that I was
finally used to the capslock and shift key locations well enough to
avoid wrongly hitting them very often. As they say, though, your
mileage may vary.)
Richard Hanson
___________________________________________
[1] On this HP Omnibook 900B even after downloading the requisite MSI
Install file, I experienced multiple errors trying to install 2.4a3.2
on Win98SE. I finally got 2.4x working, but I note that the helpfiles
are still missing the navigation icons. I have the MSI Installer error
messages if Martin or anyone is interested.

--
sick<PERI0D>old<P0INT>fart<PIE-DEC0-SYMB0L>newsguy<MARK>com
Jul 18 '05 #89
Alex Martelli wrote:
Cameron Laird <cl****@lairds.us> wrote:
How do touch-typists like them


Just fine (the 10.5" P2000 -- can't speak for the even-smaller P1000s).


I commented on my P1120 -- works better for me than the standard-sized
keyboards. See my MID:

<14********************************@4ax.com>
Richard Hanson

--
sick<PERI0D>old<P0INT>fart<PIE-DEC0-SYMB0L>newsguy<MARK>com
Jul 18 '05 #90

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