Re: [PATCH] numeric.c:S_mulexp10 -- quit when you can

On Fri, Jun 07, 2002 at 06:29:31PM -0500, Craig A. Berry wrote:
> Thanks to Brian Tillman's report of problems with an RC1 build on 
> VAX, I've discovered an issue in S_mulexp10 where it squares the 
> exponent again even after it's done iterating through the bits of the 
> exponent.  This is particularly harmful with VMS's D_FLOAT double 
> format (the default on VAX) which has a maximum range of 1.7e38.  For 
> example, when t/base/num.t tries to parse 1e34 at compile time, it 
> blows up because it tries to square 1e33 after it's already found the 
> correct result.  And even smaller values have the same problem; 
> apparently 1e32 is the boundary:
> 
> $ mcr []miniperl -e "$a=1e31; print $a;"
> 1e+31
> $ mcr []miniperl -e "$a=1e32; print $a;"
> $ write sys$output f$message($status)
> %SYSTEM-F-HPARITH, high performance arithmetic trap, Imask=!XL, Fmask=!XL, summary=!XB, PC=!XH, PS=!XL
> 
> None of this matters particularly for systems using IEEE floating 
> point, but IEEE is not available on OpenVMS VAX and is optional on 
> OpenVMS Alpha.  It looks like UNICOS could also be affected.  The
> patch below fixes the problem by exiting the loop once we know we've 
> finished examining (and clearing) all the bits of the exponent.
> 
> As far as speed impact, on average we'll probably test a 32-bit 
> integer for zero once or twice that we didn't do before but we're 
> guaranteed to save a floating point multiplication we don't need.

Thanks, applied.

-- 
$jhi++; # http://www.iki.fi/jhi/
        # There is this special biologist word we use for 'stable'.
        # It is 'dead'. -- Jack Cohen

• [PATCH] numeric.c:S_mulexp10 -- quit when you can by Craig A. Berry
• Re: [PATCH] numeric.c:S_mulexp10 -- quit when you can by Jarkko Hietaniemi