Introduction

Abstract

Representing and manipulating real numbers efficiently is required in many fields of science, engineering, finance, and more. Since the early years of electronic computing, many different ways of approximating real numbers on computers have been introduced. One can cite (this list is far from being exhaustive): fixed-point arithmetic, logarithmic [220, 400] and semi-logarithmic [294] number systems, continued fractions [228, 424], rational numbers [227] and possibly infinite strings of rational numbers [275], level-index number systems [71, 318], fixed-slash and floating-slash number systems [273], and 2-adic numbers [425].