Floating Point Package (Digital 8-5-S)

A. R. McKenzie, Data Systems Division, Standard

Telephone & Cables, Ltd., England

The Floating Point Package (Digital 8-5-S) includes an

Output Controller which allows output in fixed point as

well as floating point format. This Output Controller takes

the form of a certain number of patches to the "Floating

Output E Format" routine, plus an additional page of coding.

Using the Calculator program (Digital 8-10-5), which

includes the Floating Point Package, certain deficiencies

were noted in the fixed-point output format, particularly

the lack of any automatic rounding off.

This new version of the Output Controller is also in the form

of patches to the Floating Output with an additional page of

coding, thereby not increasing the size of the Floating Point

Package.

The following summarizes this new version:

1. The number output is automatically rounded off to the

last digit printed, or the sixth significant digit, whichever

is reached first. Floating point output is rounded off to six

significant figures since the seventh is usually meaningless.

2. A number less than one is printed with a zero preceding

the decimal point (e.g., "+0.5" instead of "+.5").

3. A zero result, after rounding off, is printed as "+0"

instead of "+".

4. The basic Floating Point Package includes the facility

to specify a carriage return/line feed after the number using

location 55 as a flag for this purpose. The patches for the

Output Controller caused this facility to be lost. This

version restores this facility.