I Can't Believe It's Not Zero!Feb 12, 2023

Proposal: people prefer “mantissa” because it abbreviates better than “significand” (any truncation of which collides with “sign”). But “mantissa” is formally incorrect, since it already has a different meaning. So we should use “magnificand” instead.

- code that uses (s,e,m) still makes sense
- it’s the thing that is magnified by the exponent—the magnificand
- magnificent

Show threadaegilops

@steve that would "correct" zero real-world issues.

I'd never heard the term "mantissa" before seeing its use in FP - I've never needed to use a logarithm lookup table! They are obsolete.

Terms in mathematics and computer science are often appropriated by analogy, and that's all that happened here. It seems like you object to this?

Please don't spend effort on something that "solves" a non-problem and would lead to more confusion.

#mantissa #FloatingPoint #pedantry

Feb 12, 2023 at 9:36pmWeb
Show threadDaniel McLauryOct 30, 2023
@aegilops @steve Then you don't work in an appropriate context to offer an opinion here. This is obviously targeted towards people who have to use this sort of terminology in their day-to-day work, and there are a great many of us.
Show threadaegilopsOct 30, 2023

@danielmclaury

Changing terms in computer science isn’t worth it to satisfy a feeling of discomfort.

I reject your attempt at gatekeeping - no thanks to _that_ attitude!

Show threadDaniel McLauryOct 30, 2023
@aegilops Figuring out exactly what to name stuff is actually worth spending more than 50% of your time on, because the payoff to it is far more than a 2x multiplier to productivity. Does Microsoft not spend a lot of time inculcating this attitude in their people any more? It has famously been one of the main things they tended to get right.