Re: As simple as it is now, I am still against motion 24.03...
Vincent
On 14 Jun 2011, at 14:09, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
>>>> I suggest that on 754-compliant systems the operations be
>>> Why 754-compliant systems only?
>>
>> Because "formatOf" is explicitly provided in 754-2008, so on such
>> systems this comes for free, if I read the standard correctly.
> But this is optional. And conversely, non-754 systems can provide
> such functions.
Please clarify "optional". "formatOf" is mandatory in 754-2008 (§5.4, particularly 5.4.1).
Of course, non-754 systems can provide such functions. I'm just saying: On a 754 system, where this feature is necessarily present, use it. A non-754 system is welcome to do the same, but as it will probably be done less efficiently, it seems sensible not to require it to do so.
At the language level, I believe, the difference would be invisible, except that the 754 system would get slightly sharper enclosures in mixed-format arithmetic.
John