Re: [vox-tech] C and IEEE-754

[Ken Bloom <kbloom@gmail.MAPScom>]

On Wed, Jun 07, 2006 at 03:41:02PM -0400, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> I started to read:
> 
>    http://www.cs.princeton.edu/introcs/91float/
> 
> and came across an interesting comment:
> 
>    "Java uses a subset of the IEEE 754 binary floating point standard to
>    represent floating point numbers and define the results of arithmetic
>    operations. Most machines conform to this standard, although some
>    languages (C, C++) do not guarantee that this is the case."
> 
> It's a poorly written paragraph, but seems to say that C and C++ don't
> guarantee adherence to the IEEE 754 standard.  If this really is the case,
> why don't they?

I suppose if your hardware supports something else instead of
IEEE-754, then a conforming C/C++ implementation can use the hardware,
rather than having to emulate IEEE-754.

--Ken Bloom

-- 
I usually have a GPG digital signature included as an attachment.
See http://www.gnupg.org/ for info about these digital signatures.

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: Digital signature

_______________________________________________
vox-tech mailing list
vox-tech@lists.lugod.org
http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech