From: jlouwere AT galaxy DOT csc DOT calpoly DOT edu (Jan Louwerens) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: doubles vs. floats Date: 29 Jan 1997 16:53:10 GMT Organization: Cal Poly Computer Science Dept. Lines: 17 Message-ID: <5cnv9m$c6c@waldorf.csc.calpoly.edu> References: <32EEA01D DOT 700E AT bc DOT sympatico DOT ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: galaxy.csc.calpoly.edu To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp sci/econ/15305 This may sound a little counterintuitive, but sometimes you can get better : > results by using doubles rather than floats. : Why is this? I've heard it many times, but never understood why. Yes, this is true. It is because every float is is converted into a double before every operation and is then converted back into a float at the end of the operation. (FPU only handles double, not float? I'm not sure). If you want speed, use all doubles instead of floats. For size, use floats. JL