# Working With Floating Point Some RETRO systems include support for floating point numbers. When present, this is built over the system `libm` using the C `double` type. Floating point values are typically 64 bit IEEE 754 double precision (1 bit for the sign, 11 bits for the exponent, and the remaining 52 bits for the value), i.e. 15 decimal digits of precision. ## Prefix Floating point numbers start with a `.` Examples: Token Value .1 1.0 .0.5 0.5 .-.4 -0.4 .1.3 1.3 ## Namespace Floating point words are in the `f:` namespace. There is also a related `e:` namespace for *encoded values*, which allows storing of floats in standard memory. ## Operation Floating point values exist on a separate stack, and are bigger than the standard memory cells, so can not be directly stored and fetched from memory. The floating point system also provides an alternate stack that can be used to temporarily store values. The following words exist for arranging values on the floating point stack. These are direct analogs to the non-prefiexd words for dealing with the data stack. - `f:nip` - `f:over` - `f:depth` - `f:drop` - `f:drop-pair` - `f:dup` - `f:dup-pair` - `f:dump-stack` - `f:tuck` - `f:swap` - `f:rot` For the secondary floating point stack, the following words are provided: - `f:push` - `f:pop` - `f:adepth` - `f:dump-astack` ## Constants | Name | Returns | | -------- | ----------------- | | `f:E` | Euler's number | | `f:-INF` | Negative infinity | | `f:INF` | Positive infinity | | `f:NAN` | Not a Number | | `f:PI` | PI | ## Comparisons The basic set of comparators are the same as those for operating on integers. These are: - `f:-eq?` - `f:between?` - `f:eq?` - `f:gt?` - `f:lt?` - `f:negative?` - `f:positive?` - `f:case` There are also a few additions for comparing to special values like infinity and NaN. - `f:-inf?` - `f:inf?` - `f:nan?` ## Basic Math - `f:*` - `f:+` - `f:-` - `f:/` - `f:abs` - `f:floor` - `f:inc` - `f:limit` - `f:max` - `f:min` - `f:negate` - `f:power` - `f:ceiling` - `f:dec` - `f:log` - `f:sqrt` - `f:square` - `f:round` - `f:sign` - `f:signed-sqrt` - `f:signed-square` ## Geometry - `f:acos` - `f:asin` - `f:atan` - `f:cos` - `f:sin` - `f:tan` ## Storage and Retrieval - `f:fetch` - `f:store` - `f:to-number` - `f:to-string` ## I/O - `f:put` ## Encoded Values RETRO provides a means of encoding and decoding floating point values into standard integer cells. This is based on the paper "Encoding floating point values to shorter integers" by Kiyoshi Yoneda and Charles Childers. - `f:E1` - `f:to-e` - `e:-INF` - `e:-inf?` - `e:INF` - `e:MAX` - `e:MIN` - `e:NAN` - `e:clip` - `e:inf?` - `e:max?` - `e:min?` - `e:n?` - `e:nan?` - `e:put` - `e:to-f` - `e:zero?`