Mtgox using single precision float for bitcoin?

[gmaxwell]

I put in a sell order for 1 BTC on MTGOX at 1e120, just to see what the limit was. The system now reports I have an open order at 3.40282e+38.

This doesn't fill me with confidence. Might make some of the weird rounding on orders I've heard people complain about in IRC make more sense...

[Astro]

yikes

[somestranger]

This doesn't fill me with confidence.

Me either... why wouldn't they use double precision?

[cdhowie]

Me either... why wouldn't they use double precision?

Why wouldn't they use fixed-point?  Floating point is for when you don't know how many decimal places you need.  With Bitcoin you know exactly how many you need; Mt. Gox should not use floating point at all.