56 engineering-format

Engineering-format changes the way maxima outputs floating-point numbers to the notation engineers are used to: a*10^b with b dividable by three.

56.1 Functions and Variables for engineering-format

Option variable: engineering_format_floats

Default value: true

This variable allows to temporarily switch off engineering-format.

(%i1) load("engineering-format");
(%o1) /home/gunter/src/maxima-code/share/contrib/engineering-for\
mat.lisp

(%i2) float(sin(10)/10000);
(%o2)                - 54.40211108893698e-6

(%i3) engineering_format_floats:false$

(%i4) float(sin(10)/10000);
(%o4)                - 5.440211108893698e-5

See also fpprintprec and float.

Categories:  Display functions Global flags Share packages

Option variable: engineering_format_min

Default value: 0.0

The minimum absolute value that isn’t automatically converted to the engineering format. See also engineering_format_max and engineering_format_floats.

(%i1) lst: float([.05,.5,5,500,5000,500000]);
(%o1)       [0.05, 0.5, 5.0, 500.0, 5000.0, 500000.0]

(%i2) load("engineering-format");
(%o2) /home/gunter/src/maxima-code/share/contrib/engineering-for\
mat.lisp

(%i3) lst;
(%o3) [50.0e-3, 500.0e-3, 5.0e+0, 500.0e+0, 5.0e+3, 500.0e+3]

(%i4) engineering_format_min:.1$
(%i5) engineering_format_max:1000$

(%i6) lst;
(%o6)     [50.0e-3, 0.5, 5.0, 500.0, 5.0e+3, 500.0e+3]

Categories:  Display functions Global flags Share packages

Option variable: engineering_format_max

Default value: 0.0

The maximum absolute value that isn’t automatically converted to the engineering format. See also engineering_format_min and engineering_format_floats.

Categories:  Display functions Global flags Share packages

56.2 Known Bugs

The output routine of SBCL 1.3.0 has a bug that sometimes causes the exponent not to be dividable by three. The value of the displayed number is still valid in this case.