Bug#820490: ITP: streflop -- STandalone REproducible FLOating-Point library

[Kip Warner <kip@thevertigo.com>]

Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
Owner: Kip Warner <kip@thevertigo.com>

* Package name    : streflop
  Version         : 0.3
  Upstream Author : Nicolas Brodu <nicolas@brodu.net>
* URL             : http://nicolas.brodu.net/en/programmation/streflop/
* License         : LGPL-2.1
  Programming Lang: C++
  Description     : ITP: streflop -- STandalone REproducible FLOating-Point
library

A computer has a finite memory, and cannot represent an infinity of numbers. If
you add 0.1 + 0.1 in C++ you will probably not get the mathematical result 0.2.
The problem is that what you get depends on many parameters. On one
configuration, you may get something like 0.1995, and on another 0.1999. For
the vast majority of programs, these small differences do not matter. But if
you want to reproduce the same results twice, for a scientific experiment for
example, on different machines or even on the same machine but with different
options, then you have to be more careful. Much more careful, because these
small differences can occasionally accumulate quite fast.

The STandalone REproducible FLOating-Point library allows you to control how
the computations are done in C++. The goal is to make your programs give
reliable and reproducible results.