Interesting.

[royfromaus]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sadiq-khan-london-mayor-race-row-ulez-b2396160.html

[bhg481]

TTT - as a programmer you might find it interesting that we found an error in the first compiler we had with Cray (We'd written our own compilers until then); A x B was not equal to B x A - the result was different by 1 bit in 64 bit numbers. You might think that is not overly important but we were testing the number for changing the time-step in mathematical models; the time-step was changed at a different point in the calculation and the final results could differ by as much as 5%.

[lankeela]

Maybe the note was added by a member of staff who would prefer to have a new boss.

[Peter Pedant]

Douglas - I have no idea what you are talking about.
dont tell him Douglas !

mods ( bless them, some of the brightest men I know) are very keen to suggest that if they dont understand something it must be bad AND someone's fault

....

cray twins, for the non computer literate circa 1980-90, Cray built the biggest best and most expensive computers. - when the Cray computer was NOT the fastest on the market - they --- fired the mgt team. - Payment by results

[Peter Pedant]

there were three of us and we were known as the Terrible Twins.
yeah fwee.
You have more opportuity to use the phrase, - not only for AB but AC BC....just er saying

[Peter Pedant]

You might think that is not overly important but we were testing the number for changing the time-step in mathematical models;

wd matter if your model is chaotic - that is how lorenz discovered it all - atmospheric model 1962 and only plugged in two decimal places and got completely different results

oh god andy is really gonna have a go at me

[Hopkirk]

What's all the fuss about?
It's not representative.

[Peter Pedant]

there is no completely efficient error checking program.

for if there WERE you could get it to check itself, and rig it so that it says there is an error when there isnt....

oh god andy is gonna go off his trolley

[ToraToraTora]

BHG, sorry just seen your answers. I worked in Fortran(77) in 1985 on the Dorset Police command and control system. Before and after that I did mainly Cobol. Though also I ended up becoming the IBM MF assembler expert later when no one else could be found to do it!

[Raving-Mod]

As fascinating as computing-related anecdotes might be to some, can you please stick to the question's topic?

[JimF]

You are abusing your "authority", such as it is, as usual.

Derailing threads is not against the rules of this site, unfortunately.

But you know that, right, being a mod...

[Raving-Mod]

JimF "Derailing threads is not against the rules of this site, unfortunately."

The rule I am relying on is this one,

"16. The AnswerBank reserves the right to remove any post that does not relate to the topic being discussed..."

I could have deleted several posts but gave a reminder to stick to the topic instead.

[vulcan42]

It's also interesting that rule 16 is valid if the thread goes off topic but rule 9 is never valid under any circumstances. It would appear this rule is becoming the metaphorical elephant in the room.

[JimF]

That is correct. The current site owners are completely out of their depth with a site like this, and are so strapped for cash that they will do nothing which might reduce the already limited traffic this site creates.