need for binary floats (except performance)?

[kartik]

Since the Decimal type can represent any given fractional number
exactly, including all IEEE binary floating-point numbers, wouldn't it
be advisable to use Decimals for all floating point numbers (except
possibly for performance)?

Thanks, Kartik.

 

[Paul Rubin]

Since the Decimal type can represent any given fractional number
exactly,

It can't. For example, it can't represent 1/3 exactly.

including all IEEE binary floating-point numbers, wouldn't it be
advisable to use Decimals for all floating point numbers (except
possibly for performance)?

The notion has some appeal, though algorithms on binary floats have
been studied a lot over the past several decades, while decimal floats
are not used very much at the moment. It will get more interesting
if and when we start seeing decimal floating point hardware again.

 

[Grant Edwards]

Since the Decimal type can represent any given fractional number
exactly, including all IEEE binary floating-point numbers, wouldn't it
be advisable to use Decimals for all floating point numbers (except
possibly for performance)?

That's a pretty huge "except" for some applications.