[
Date Prev][
Date Next][
Thread Prev][
Thread Next][
Date Index][
Thread Index]
Re: decimal floating point
> Secondly, what is the interpretation of an operation that is applied to
> mixed formats? In particular, assuming there are interformat conversion
> operations in hardware, what are the promotion rules?
Like the other questions, this is a language-specific item. As David
mentioned, a good approach is probably to simply disallow any mixed-format
operations except without specific conversion (e.g., a cast). C# takes
this approach. Other languages (e.g., PL/I) supply particular rules,
appropriate for the language. C-based languages tend to default to binary
FP for intermediate calculations (e.g., of constant expressions) but given
"real" decimal FP this may change.
I don't think 754r needs to address this question in the standard.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Mike Cowlishaw, IBM Fellow
IBM UK (MP5), PO Box 31, Birmingham Road, Warwick, CV34 5JL
mailto:mfc@xxxxxxxxxx -- http://www2.hursley.ibm.com/decimal