Behavior of mpf_eq near zero

[Vincent Lefevre]

On 2015-04-13 11:31:03 +0200, tg at gmplib.org wrote:
> Alejandro Mallea <janoma at gmail.com> writes:
> 
>   The documentation says that mpf_eq(op1, op2, op3) "returns non-zero if
>   the first op3 bits of op1 and op2 are equal", which makes me think
>   equality is dangerously tied to the internal representation ("the
>   first op3 bits"), but then it says "i.e., test if op1 and op2 are
>   approximately equal.", but that is not happening in this case.
>   
> The mpf_eq function is not well thought out, but I believe it works
> according to its documentation.  Zero is only mpf_eq-equal to itself.

The manual poorly specifies this function since it doesn't say what
the first bits of a number are. For instance, the first 3 bits of

  0.000

and

  0.001

are "0.00" thus are equal. So, you need to introduce the concept
of normalization, and possibly take zero apart since it cannot be
normalized.

> Please don't use this function.  At least use mpf_reldiff, or even
> better, use the mpfr GMP extension library.

I agree, though I really think that mpf_eq should be properly
specified. And how about saying that this function is obsolete
and planning to remove it in the future?

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Vincent Lefèvre <vincent at vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
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