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Re: bug in IntegerPart ?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg47957] Re: bug in IntegerPart ?
• From: John Doty <jpd at whispertel.LoseTheH.net>
• Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 04:50:57 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <c6qb7p$sdf$1@smc.vnet.net> <c6uo7j$aul$1@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

AC wrote:

> Mr. Lichtblau and other respondents clearly pointed out that BaseForm
> is not useful for to print numbers in given base and that RealDigits
> should be used instead. If there is no clear purpose for BaseForm
> left, why it is not removed from the system?

BaseForm is for printing numbers. I sometimes use it when my output is 
intended for construction or programming of binary hardware. For exact 
input, it yields exact output, for approximate input it yields 
approximate output. It is intended to produce readable and exportable 
output. It may not be useful to you, but it certainly is useful to me.

This is different from deconstructing approximate numbers, for which one 
should use RealDigits. Its output is less readable and less convenient 
to export, but it's useful if you want to do further processing of the 
list of digits within Mathematica, or for understanding the internal 
representation of an approximate number in detail.

-jpd