significant digits?

[Jim Correia]

On Wednesday, April 9, 2003, at 07:07  PM, David Relson wrote:

> No.  0.95 converts internally to 0.9500000 (or something similar) and 
> bogofilter uses the converted value.

Al values for floats and doubles can't be represented exactly in 
machine form, so it is probably something li 0.949999988...

>  Implementing rounding _could_ be done, but there's no point.  If 
> someone wants 0.94966 to indicate spam, then they should specify a 
> spam_cutoff value.

My argument is that there might very well be a point, depending on the 
statistical calculations (which I am not familiar with).

If there really are only 2 significant digits in the spamicity 
calculation, then my message *should* have been classified as spam. If, 
on the other hand, the calculation really does have 5 significant 
digits, then it should not have been classified as spam.

I'm not suggesting that the spamicity be arbitrarily rounded to 2 
places, but rounded to the proper number of significant digits as the 
calculation dictates.

(This is probably only a pedantic point. The probability of a spamicity 
calculation within such a narrow margin around the cutoff value is 
probably low?)

Jim