For the uninitiated, the problem of doing floating point arithmetic can be summarized by trying this in Python (or almost any other language for that matter):
>>> 1.3 + 0.1
1.4000000000000001
I know. Shocking, right?! There are many resources that go into great detail about why this happens, so I won’t do it here. Suffice it to say that the “floating point” type is imprecise due to the nature of how the number is stored in computing.
When doing any precise math (e.g. financial applications), you should be using a proper “Decimal” type to address this, and every respectable language should have one, either natively or as a package.
Note that for Python, the input to Decimal() should be a string, which is its own gotcha
🤦🏻♂️:
>>> from decimal import Decimal
>>> Decimal('1.3') + Decimal('0.1')
Decimal('1.4')
Until next time, happy hacking!
]]>It feels appropriate to dedicate this first post to the key technologies enabling its existence:
It’s worth noting that this setup is not exactly user-friendly, especially for anyone new to tech, but it can also be hosted for free (minus the cost of custom domain) if you’re okay with having its contents be publicly accessible on GitHub. You can also pay a GitHub subscription to enable privatizing the contents.
If you’re strictly looking to blog with a low-maintenance, well-supported, feature-full editor, I can’t really recommend this route given the number of other great specialized services for that purpose.
However, if you’re curious about tech at all and just want to have your own (static) website for whatever reason, it’s never too late to learn!
Until next time, happy hacking!
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