title: Why did Microsoft abandon long double data type?
body: <p>A while ago I wrote a program which used some factorial functions. I used the long double data type to support "relative" big numbers. </p>
  
  <p>Now, I changed from codeblocks to Visualstudio 2010, I was wondering why my program didn't work any more till I realized after some research that MS has abandonded the long double data type.
  Is there any special reason for this? To me it looks very like step backwards in terms of technology. </p>
  
  <p>Is there any alternative to use? (I would also be happy with an alternative out of the boost library).</p>