Numerical precision and data structures

Abstract

Technical proposals and recommendations for revising FORTRAN were studied and categorized. In the area of numerical precision, the proposals basically agree on a set of necessary parameters, although a wide range of nomenclature and specific function names are used. Environmental parameters identified include the following: (1) base of floating point representation, (2) largest positive real number, exponent and integer, (3) largest negative real number, exponent and integer, (4) number of significant digits, and (5) exponent bias.