NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/comp/arch/10535

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-08 | 1.9 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: integer/BCD/... dollars (was IEEE used for Dollars and Cents)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 9 Nov 92 02:33:05 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Chris Torek)
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley
Lines: 36
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.112.15

(Last word on this non-computer-architecture stuff :-) )

I wrote:
>> Signed integers are not an absolute must, but precision greater than
>> one penny is; most businesses seem to keep records to five digits or so.

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Don Stokes) writes:
>Figures are only _published_ to five digits or so.  Bookkeeping must be
>to the last cent,

Sorry, I meant `five digits past the decimal point', the decimal point
being dollars.  These are apparently called `mills', i.e., thousanths
of a cent ($0 + 0 cents + 0.001 cents = 1/1000 cents = 0.00001
dollars).

I did drop a decimal point in my kitchen arithmetic:

    2^64 =    18446744073709551616
in mills:    184467440737095.51616
or:    $184 467 440 737 095.51616
or:    $184 467 441 million
or:    $184 467 billion [U.S. usage, though I understand `milliard' is
                dropping out of favour]
or:    $184 trillion

If signed, we have to cut this in half ($92 trillion).

(Since our debt has been growing exponentially, this is not really much
worse than I thought.  Exponential rapidly overwhelms a factor of ten.
Note, incidentally, that 18-digit BCD has less range than 64-bit
binary.  Other random side note: the traditional way to retire the
national debt is high inflation.  When this happens, will accountants
stop using mills?)
--
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Lawrence Berkeley Lab CSE/EE ([phone])
Berkeley, CA        Domain:    [e-mail]