Re: Getting greatest decimal accuracy out of G_PI

[Richard Boaz <riboaz xs4all nl>]

taken, in context, from the following page: http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/glib/glib-resources.html

There are several mailing lists dedicated to GTK+ and related libraries. Discussion of GLib generally takes place on these lists. You can subscribe or view the archives of these lists on http://mail.gnome.org.

gtk-list gnome org  - gtk-list covers general GTK+ (and GLib) topics; questions about using GLib in programs, GLib from a user standpoint, announcements of GLib-related projects would all be on-topic. The bulk of the traffic consists of GTK+ programming questions. 

but this strikes me as a bit lacking given the real reality of this mailing list.  perhaps the following could be added to fully round out a noobie's expectations of what they'll find here:

(P.S.  Don't worry, though, if it isn't on-topic, the GTK+ Police will certainly let you know of your unforgiveable infraction, even if they're wrong.  Not only that, they'll even give advice (freely) as to what you should do for a living, even if they don't know anything about the subject in question.)

On Feb 3, 2007, at 12:31 PM, Tor Lillqvist wrote:

Just feeling for the limits of what I can do given the contraints

of the language.

And how is that related to GTK+?

I like to think about things like using the center of the earth as

an origin, and using a spherical coordinate system to locate

points(and/or areas volumes) on the surface or in space. The accuracy 

depends mostly on the accuracy of the angles in radians( ie. the

number of decimal places of PI).

What about the accuracy of the measurements that specify where said

points are in the first place? What about the accuracy of the

trigonometric function implementations? What about the accuracy and

stability (etc, stuff I don't really know) of the algorithms you use?

You do know, I hope, that for instance (hypothetically) adding a 20

digit "accurate" 1.0000000000000000000 to an equally accurate

1.0000000000000000000e-6 a million times isn't necessarily going to

produce what you perhaps expect.

I'm sure it can go into the other direction also, what about nano-technology

where you are dealing with the super-small. The ability to distinquish

very small angles would be very important.

Sorry, but I do get the feeling that this is one of the discussions

where the somewhat blunt but most appropriate answer is "if you have

to ask that question (on an off-topic mailing list, even), you

shouldn't be doing it".

--tml

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