# RingTwinFloat

© 2005,2009,2012 John Abbott, Anna M. Bigatti
GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

- User documentation for the classes RingTwinFloat and RingTwinFloatImpl
  - Examples
  - Pseudo-constructors
  - Query and cast
  - Operations
  - Homomorphisms
- Maintainer documentation for the classes RingTwinFloat and RingTwinFloatImpl
  - Philosophy
  - RingTwinFloatImpl::myFloor
- Bugs, shortcomings and other ideas
- Main changes

CoCoALib Documentation Index

## User documentation for the classes RingTwinFloat and RingTwinFloatImpl

IMPORTANT NOTICE: please make sure you are using GMP 4.1.4 or later (wrong results may be obtained with earlier versions).

Elements of a `RingTwinFloat` try to act as though they were unlimited precision floating point values (while using only a finite precision). RingTwinFloat uses a heuristic to monitor loss of precision during computation, and will throw a `RingTwinFloat::InsufficientPrecision` object if it detects an unacceptable loss of precision. Beware that this is only a probabilistic heuristic which can underestimate precision loss. A `RingTwinFloat::InsufficientPrecision` object may also be caught as an `ErrorInfo` object having error code `ERR::InsuffPrec` (see `error`).

EXAMPLE: If epsilon is a non-zero `RingTwinFloat` value then (1+epsilon == 1) will either be false or throw `RingTwinFloat::InsufficientPrecision`.

`RingTwinFloat` uses a heuristic for guessing when the difference of two almost equal values should be regarded as zero. While the heuristic is usually very reliable, it is possible to construct examples where the heuristic fails: see EXAMPLES/ex-RingTwinFloat1.C.

The function `IsInteger` will return false for any value of magnitude greater than or equal to 2^PrecisionBits(RR). Recognition of integers is heuristic; failures in ether sense are possible but are also unlikely.

See `RingElem` RingTwinFloat for operations on its elements.

### Examples

- ex-RingTwinFloat1.C
- ex-RingTwinFloat2.C
- ex-RingTwinFloat3.C

### Pseudo-constructors

The constructor for RingTwinFloat takes a single argument being a lower bound on the number of bits' precision desired (in the mantissa). The value specified is probably rounded up a bit; exactly what happens depends on the mpf implementation in the GMP library. A minimum precision of 32 bits is imposed; smaller precisions are automatically increased to 32.

All arguments are `MachineInt`

- `NewRingTwinFloat(AccuracyBits)`
- `NewRingTwinFloat(AccuracyBits, BufferBits, NoiseBits)`

### Query and cast

Let `S` be a `ring`

- `IsRingTwinFloat(S)` -- `true` iff `S` is actually a `RingTwinFloat`
- `AsRingTwinFloat(S)` -- if `S` is a `RingTwinFloat` view it as such

### Operations

In addition to the standard `ring` operations, a `FractionField` may be used in:

- `PrecisionBits(RR)` -- gives the mantissa precision specified in the ctor

### Homomorphisms

Let `RR` be a `RingTwinFloat` and `R` any `Ring`

- `NewApproxHom(RR, R)` -- creates the homomorphism `RR` --> `S` (but see also `CanonicalHom`)

## Maintainer documentation for the classes RingTwinFloat and RingTwinFloatImpl

As usual the class `RingTwinFloat` is just a reference counting smart pointer to an object of type `RingTwinFloatImpl` (which is the one which really does the work). The implementation of the smart pointer class `RingTwinFloat` is altogether straightfoward (just the same as any of the other smart pointer ring classes).

### Philosophy

The implementation is based on Traverso's idea of "paired floats": each value is represented as two almost equal floating point numbers. The difference between the two numbers is intended to give a good indication of how much "noise" there is in the values. Here we shall allow larger tuples of floating point numbers. Arithmetic is performed independently on each component: e.g.

        (a[0],a[1]) + (b[0],b[1])  ==>  (a[0]+b[0] , a[1]+b[1])

The consistency of the components is checked after every operation.

The main "trick" in the implementation of `RingTwinFloatImpl` is that its elements are `MultipleFloat`s (just a C array of `mpf_t` values). The number of components in a `MultipleFloat` value is determined by `RingTwinFloatImpl::myNumCompts` -- currently fixed equal to 2 at compile time. Furthermore the values of these components must all be very close to each other. Indeed the function `RingTwinFloatImpl::myCheckConsistency` checks this condition: two outcomes are possible: - (1) all the components are very close to each other; - (2) at least one component is quite far from another. - In case (1) nothing more happens. In case (2) it is evident that an accumulated loss of precision has become unacceptable, and this triggers an exception of type `RingTwinFloat::InsufficientPrecision`. The addition and subtraction functions check explicitly for near cancellation, and force the result to be zero in such cases.

The bit precision parameter specified when creating a RingTwinFloat is used in the following way (with the underlying principle being that elements of `RingTwinFloat(N)` should have at least roughly N bits of reliable value).

The digits in the mantissa (of each component in a `MultipleFloat`) are conceptually divided into three regions:

         A A A A...A A A  B B B B....B B B B  C C C....C C C
         <-  N bits   ->  <- sqrt(N) bits ->  <- N/2 bits ->

The region A comprises as many bits as the precision requested, and may be regarded as being correct with high probability. The region B comprises "guard digits": these digits are NOT regarded as being correct, but regions A and B of all components must be equal. Finally, region C is for "noise", and may be different in different components.

When an integer is converted to a `MultipleFloat`, the component with index 0 takes on the closest possible value to the integer while the other component(s) have about sqrt(N) bits of uniform random "noise" added to them (the random value may be positive or negative).

Special action is taken if there is large drop in magnitude during an addition (or subtraction): if the magnitude drops by more than N+sqrt(N) bits then the answer is forced to be equal to zero. There is a remote chance of erroneously computing zero when two almost equal values are subtracted. It does not seem to be possible to avoid this using limited precision arithmetic.

Special action is taken if a "noisy" component happens to be too close to the value at index 0: in this case more random noise is added. This can happen, for instance, if a value is divided by itself.

### RingTwinFloatImpl::myFloor

It took me a while to find a satisfactory definition for the member function `myFloor` (even though the final code is fairly simple).

I eventually settled on the following definition. If the argument satisfies the `IsInteger` predicate then the floor function must surely give precisely that integer. Otherwise the argument (call it X) is not an integer, and the floor of X, if it exists, will be that integer N which satisfies the two-part condition N < X and N+1 > X. If there is no such integer N then the floor cannot be computed, and an `InsufficientPrecision` exception must be thrown. In fact, there is an obvious candidate for N, namely the floor of the first component of the internal representation of X (it would be trickier to use the floor of the second component). Clearly N can be no larger than this candidate, since otherwise the first part of the condition would fail; and if N were any smaller then the second part would fail.

## Bugs, shortcomings and other ideas

The code is ugly.

The functions `perturb`, `ApproximatelyEqual` and `myCmp` do "wasteful" alloc/free of temporary `mpf_t` values. `myCmp` can be done better.

What about a function which finds a continued fraction approximant to a `RingTwinFloat` value? It seems hard to implement such a function "outside" `RingTwinFloatImpl` as `InsufficientPrecision` will be triggered long before ambiguity is encountered in the continued fraction.

`myIsInteger` needs to be rewritten more sensibly (using `mpf_ceil` or `mpf_floor` perhaps?)

How to print out floats when they appear as coeffs in a polynomial??? What are the "best" criteria for printing out a float so that it looks like an integer? Should the integer-like printout contain a decimal point to emphasise that the value may not be exact?

Is it really necessary to call `myCheckConsistency` after multiplication and division? The accumulated loss of precision must grow quite slowly. Yes, it is necessary: consider computing 1^1000000 (or any other high power).

What about COMPLEX floats???

When a `MultipleFloat` is duplicated should its components be perturbed?

AsMPF is an UGLY function: signature reveals too much about the impl!

`myNumCompts` could be chosen by the user at run-time; in which case it must become a per-instance data member (instead of static). I'd guess that 2, 3 or 4 would be the best compromise.

Could it be useful to allow precisions below 32 bits? The limit does seem to be somewhat arbitrary. Perhaps the number of noise bits should also be allowed to vary?

`RingTwinFloatImpl::myOutput`:

- the the number of digits printed could be determined by how closely the different components match -- would this be useful or wise?
- the number of digits printed is related to the definition of `myCheckConsistency` (I'm a little uneasy about this invisible link)

Should there be a means of mapping an element of a high precision `RingTwinFloat` to a lower precision `RingTwinFloat` (without having to pass through an external representation, such as a rational number)?

It seems wasteful to use two `mpf_t` values to represent a single `RingTwinFloat` value. Would it not be better to keep the main value and an "epsilon" (held as a `double` and an `int` exponent? Would it matter that "epsilon" has only limited precision?

## Main changes