I use the windows calculator all the time.
+R, "calc", , and I'm off doing my calculations. It was probably about 10 years ago that I started using the scientific mode all the time. This was when I realized that the standard mode didn't support correct order of operations. So whenever I see a windows calculator that isn't in scientific mode, I quickly change it, and then go about my calculations. So when the need for a calculator came up and I was using Windows 7, I went about my normal flow, but when I was going to change it to the scientific mode, I found a new mode "Programmer" mode. (yeah, it's also got a cool unit-conversion mode, but that's not what I'm talking about today) I'm a programmer, so, I thought it would be the perfect mode for me. I swapped over, tried performing my calculation (something like 15 / 16), and was annoyed that the result was wrong (it gave a zero result). Thinking I had typed it in incorrectly, I retyped, and the same wrong result was given. I did note that programmer mode does have other potentially useful features like hex and bit conversions built in, but because I was in a small hurry, I swapped back to scientific mode, performed my calculations, and went on my way. Later, I got curious as to what happened, and I discovered how programmer mode works: It performs integer-only calculations. 15/16 is zero when using integer arithmetic. I wonder why it doesn't support floating point operations. The calculator would be really handy if it showed the bits for a floating point according to the IEEE 754 standard. But otherwise it is nice that it supports 64 bit integer operations. I'll probably mostly stick with scientific mode.
This reminds me of a joke I invented back when I was learning about the IEEE 754 floating-point standard:
There are 0011111111111111 kinds of people in this world, those who really understand the IEEE 754 floating-point standard, and those who don't.
Yeah, I realize it's not really a joke I can tell at parties, but I haven't told it on my blog yet, so it might as well be on here somewhere.
8 comments:
Only 1.9990234375 types of people? Why not 0100000000000000 types of people? That would be more integer-flavored.
Perhaps you are implying that those who do not understand floating point numbers are somehow *lesser*.
Also, 16-bit FP precision = eww.
I find this increasingly annoying...
I basically do two things with the calculator (calculating, and hex<->dec<->bin conversions)
Due to this change I cannot use scientific mode to do both anymore, and I cannot use programmer mode to do both. So I need to switch between the modes constantly. On top of that during the switch it does not remember the value so i need to copy and paste it...
It's getting extremely tedious.
I need either hex<->dec<->bin
conversions back in scientific mode, or decimal point calculations in programmer mode while in decimal input mode.
/sigh
So if everyone could just explain this to the windows 7 team, I might not need to start looking for a "classic calculator". :p
Part of the point of the joke is that floating-point math frequently makes mistakes. Sometimes you have to realize that 1.9990234375 might actually be two.
Also, would you have felt better if I said
00111111111111111111111111111111 with 32 bits of precision?
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