===================================== MODERATOR'S COMMENT:
 Agreed, this is becoming off-topic.  Please consider taking it to email.


===================================== END OF MODERATOR'S COMMENT
""James Kuyper Jr."" <kuyper@wizard.net> wrote:
> Hyman Rosen wrote:
> > Ken Shaw wrote:
> >> 10 math not base 2. The differences between the 2 bases introduce
> >> significant errors into almost any financial calculation.
> >
> >
> > No, they introduce *insignificant* errors. Ten dimes will add
>
> Accountants get to define what counts as significant for their purposes,
> and they've found that there's a lot of diagnostic benefit in treating a
> discrepancy of even a single penny as significant, even though the penny
> itself isn't very important.

Having just witnessed a monster thread on monetary rounding in
comp.lang.python, it is clear to me that:
1. This discussion can go on indefinitely.
2. No consensus will be reached.
3. Anyone interested in all the arguments can look up
<http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=comp.lang.python&as_usubject=Deci
mal%20arithmetic>
4. This is OT for comp.std.c++.  Moderator action, please.
5. CFD: comp.monetary-rounding.advocacy ;-) (I'm sure it will get lots of
traffic.)

My DKr. 0.25: Floating-point can provide high accuracy, but sometimes
accountants prefer predictability over accuracy.

- Anders


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