Should SuperCollider Show Full Floating-Point Precision? Time for a Change?

[smoge]

@mike

Matlab handles this with a command format short and format long in the command window (default short). I find this convenient for the (rare) times I want to observe the full precision. So having a similar flag available in the language, or check box in the post window docklet, could also be nice.

Sometimes, it may even output shorter strings, so it’s not about “short” or “long” ! That’s an interesting element that came out in this discussion. Thanks to @asynth

–

Maybe something like this wouldn’t intrude on the rest of the code too much?

static void prettyFormatFloat(char* str, double d, bool useRyu = false)
{
    if (useRyu) {
        d2s_buffered(d, str);
    } else {
        sprintf(str, "%.14g", d);
    }
  // rest of the function
}

prettyFormatFloat(buffer, 1.234);        
prettyFormatFloat(buffer, 1.234, true);

// or maybe this, leaving default always to false
prettyFormatFloat(str, slotRawFloat(slot), useRyu);

EDIT: Additionally, changes to the documentation on how this format allows you to return to the exact binary representation of the floating-point number are also significant.