Sorry, but I remain skeptical. The same people who use `float` for financial calculations are probably the same people who don't understand how/why to do the rounding described to avoid these problems. Way too many programmers think that they are working in base 10 when using float. Why not just make them use it, and keep them out of trouble.
Also, I wonder what the overhead of rounding every operation is? Comparable to the cost of using a proper Decimal class?
"if you are doing some financial math that does not need to be accurate to the penny, just use floating point numbers."
I would argue that financial math by definition needs to be accurate to the penny. Where is "pretty close" financial calculations considered acceptable? Having worked at a bank, I know how seriously this sort of thing is taken.
From experience, working in scientific applications and numerical computing, summing large numbers of floats is fraught with accuracy problems too.
Also, I wonder what the overhead of rounding every operation is? Comparable to the cost of using a proper Decimal class?
"if you are doing some financial math that does not need to be accurate to the penny, just use floating point numbers."
I would argue that financial math by definition needs to be accurate to the penny. Where is "pretty close" financial calculations considered acceptable? Having worked at a bank, I know how seriously this sort of thing is taken.
From experience, working in scientific applications and numerical computing, summing large numbers of floats is fraught with accuracy problems too.