Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!ria!uwovax!7103_2622
From: 7103_2622@uwovax.uwo.ca (Eric Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: GNU C Floating Point Math
Message-ID: <4460.257c1397@uwovax.uwo.ca>
Date: 6 Dec 89 00:14:31 GMT
References: <3497@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Lines: 29

In article <3497@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>, esp_05@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Stdnt 05) writes:
> Does anyone have any experience with GNU C and using floating point
> math?  From my brief experiences of trying to write some 3D animation
> in GNU C (or should I say my brief run-in with GNU C) I have uncovered
> an unreasonably large number of errors in the floating point handling.
> Admittedly, a number of them cleared up when I stopped using -mshort,
> even though I used -lpml16 whenever I used -mshort.
> 
You don't mention what version of GNU C you're using. The latest version
(1.36) is considerably better at floating point. The libraries are also
considerably improved. I don't use floating point much, so I don't know
how good the pml is, but I do know that the weird errors I used to get
with printf(), etc. are gone now.
> 
> Any ideas or suggestions?  After comparing GNU C with an ancient copy
> of the original (c.1986) Megamax C, with Megamax C blowing GNU C away,
> I'll probably get Laser C next month anyway.

I purged Laser C from my hard drive a while back. I found its libraries
very incomplete and somewhat buggy, and the compiler itself was frustrating.
It does have a nice math library, so if you're most concerned with floating
point it might be OK for you. If you do a lot of porting of code from Unix,
you might also want to look at Mark Williams C, which I hear is good.
--
Eric R. Smith                     email:
Dept. of Mathematics            ERSMITH@uwovax.uwo.ca
University of Western Ontario   ERSMITH@uwovax.bitnet
London, Ont. Canada N6A 5B7
ph: (519) 661-3638