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NewsMicrosoft warns that new Windows updates may break printing Pin
Kent Sharkey24-Jul-22 8:16
staffKent Sharkey24-Jul-22 8:16 
GeneralRe: Microsoft warns that new Windows updates may break printing Pin
obermd25-Jul-22 3:26
obermd25-Jul-22 3:26 
NewsLatest Windows 11 update brings upgrade option right at startup Pin
Kent Sharkey24-Jul-22 8:16
staffKent Sharkey24-Jul-22 8:16 
GeneralRe: Latest Windows 11 update brings upgrade option right at startup Pin
Nelek24-Jul-22 10:18
protectorNelek24-Jul-22 10:18 
GeneralRe: Latest Windows 11 update brings upgrade option right at startup Pin
obermd25-Jul-22 3:38
obermd25-Jul-22 3:38 
NewsFloating Point Math Pin
Kent Sharkey21-Jul-22 10:31
staffKent Sharkey21-Jul-22 10:31 
GeneralRe: Floating Point Math Pin
David O'Neil21-Jul-22 12:06
professionalDavid O'Neil21-Jul-22 12:06 
GeneralRe: Floating Point Math Pin
trønderen21-Jul-22 14:10
trønderen21-Jul-22 14:10 
Most likely because Cobol traditionally doesn't use floating point, so it is outside the scope of the article. Nowadays, you can use floating point with Cobol (according to Wikipedia: Since the 2002 revision), but traditionally, it was all decimal, either as BCD or scaled integer.

Quite a few times, I have had to explain the very idea of BCD to youngsters: They have a university degree in computer science; yet they have never heard about it. Usually, they have a hard time understanding how a computer can do arithmetic on BCD values, and find it hard to trust me when I tell that in the old days, a number of CPU architectures had machine instructions operating directly on BCD.

I believe that several old Cobol compilers never used BCD, but scaled integers. What appeared to you as, say, US dollars with two decimals, was internally treated as integer cents; the decimal point between the dollars and cents were inserted in the output process, but never seen at the internal level.

Maybe the article author could have mentioned: If we stray away from floating point, ... Well, he didn't but limited himself to what the headline says. I wouldn't call that 'shoddy reporting'.
GeneralRe: Floating Point Math Pin
Daniel Pfeffer21-Jul-22 21:40
professionalDaniel Pfeffer21-Jul-22 21:40 
GeneralRe: Floating Point Math Pin
harold aptroot22-Jul-22 5:54
harold aptroot22-Jul-22 5:54 
GeneralRe: Floating Point Math Pin
Daniel Pfeffer23-Jul-22 20:41
professionalDaniel Pfeffer23-Jul-22 20:41 
GeneralRe: Floating Point Math Pin
den2k8822-Jul-22 1:58
professionalden2k8822-Jul-22 1:58 
GeneralRe: Floating Point Math Pin
Nelek23-Jul-22 10:56
protectorNelek23-Jul-22 10:56 
GeneralRe: Floating Point Math Pin
Shao Voon Wong21-Jul-22 19:53
mvaShao Voon Wong21-Jul-22 19:53 
NewsThe birth of Random-Access Memory Pin
Kent Sharkey21-Jul-22 10:16
staffKent Sharkey21-Jul-22 10:16 
GeneralRe: The birth of Random-Access Memory Pin
Marc Clifton22-Jul-22 10:29
mvaMarc Clifton22-Jul-22 10:29 
GeneralRe: The birth of Random-Access Memory Pin
Daniel Pfeffer24-Jul-22 3:16
professionalDaniel Pfeffer24-Jul-22 3:16 
NewsThere’s a new push for a right to repair enterprise software Pin
Kent Sharkey21-Jul-22 10:16
staffKent Sharkey21-Jul-22 10:16 
NewsHow and why I’m improving my developer vocabulary Pin
Kent Sharkey21-Jul-22 9:46
staffKent Sharkey21-Jul-22 9:46 
GeneralRe: How and why I’m improving my developer vocabulary Pin
Greg Utas21-Jul-22 14:35
professionalGreg Utas21-Jul-22 14:35 
GeneralRe: How and why I’m improving my developer vocabulary Pin
Marc Clifton22-Jul-22 10:24
mvaMarc Clifton22-Jul-22 10:24 
NewsAutoRegex Pin
Kent Sharkey21-Jul-22 9:31
staffKent Sharkey21-Jul-22 9:31 
NewsWindows 11 22H2 comes with brute force attacks protection enabled by default Pin
Kent Sharkey21-Jul-22 9:31
staffKent Sharkey21-Jul-22 9:31 
NewsJames Webb spots the farthest galaxy humans have ever seen, near the dawn of time Pin
Kent Sharkey21-Jul-22 9:31
staffKent Sharkey21-Jul-22 9:31 
NewsMicrosoft tests new taskbar overflow UI for people who open too many apps at once Pin
Kent Sharkey21-Jul-22 9:16
staffKent Sharkey21-Jul-22 9:16 

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