In Berkeley U did Velvel Kahan

You are probably aware of Coleridge's poem, Xanadu. What is less known is his keen interest in accurate floating point arithemtic. For example, in his poem, he waxes eloquent about "floating midway on the waves", clearly revealing an interest in floating point accuracy when computing with wavelets. Here is a variant on his poem on the IEEE Floating Point Standard .

Xanadu, by Coleridge In Berkeley U did Velvel Kahn by T. D.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

In Berkeley U. did Velvel Kahan
A floating standard tome decree :
Where Inf, the underflow, and NaN
Threw 'xceptions measureless to man
To C++ and C.

If you like this poem, you can find more poems at Horror Matrices and Other Mathematical Poetry. Click here for an index of my serious poetry.

Xanadu, by Coleridge		In Berkeley U did Velvel Kahn by T. D.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree : Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.		In Berkeley U. did Velvel Kahan A floating standard tome decree : Where Inf, the underflow, and NaN Threw 'xceptions measureless to man To C++ and C.