let's say, for the float type in c, according to the IEEE floating point specification, there are 8-bit used for the fraction filed, and it is calculated as first taken these 8-bit and translated it into an unsigned number, and then minus the BIASE, which is 2^7 - 1 = 127, and the result is an exponent ranges from -127 to 128, inclusive. But why can't we just treat these 8-bit pattern as a signed number, since the resulting range is [-128,127], which is almost the same as the previous one.