Motion P1788/M0006.04_Level_2_Multi-format YES

[Michel Hack <hack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I vote YES on Motion 6 -- Multi-Format.

I should add that if the underlying system supports both binary and
decimal FP arithmetic, it should support MRMF intervals, as there is
a clear understanding of mixed-radix interval operations -- except
possibly for comparisons.  (Conceptually there is no difficulty, but
implementation of, say, a mixed-radix containment predicate can be
dicey.)

Two comments on the text of the motion:

(a)  The use of bold vs natural to distinguish interval variable
     names from point variable names is risky, as the distinction
     is not always easy to see, and may disappear entirely when
     a document is rendered in plain-text.  I prefer the Vienna
     approach of using double letters.

(b)  Watch out for convertFromInt -- it *is* relevant that this
     is defined as a formatOf operation in 754, because rounding
     may be involved (e.g. from int64 to bfp64).

Michel.
---Sent: 2009-09-08 21:10:59 UTC