Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: floating point constant folding
Message-ID: <1990Nov14.191536.29659@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <8191@star.cs.vu.nl> <1990Nov13.174025.1520@zoo.toronto.edu> <8237@star.cs.vu.nl>
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 90 19:15:36 GMT

In article <8237@star.cs.vu.nl> eck@cs.vu.nl (Hans van Eck) writes:
>The problem is that the standard (in 3.4) explicitely allows greater range
>and precision for floating point expressions when a constant is required...

I don't think 3.4 says quite that; indeed, it explicitly states that the
rules for constant expression evaluation are the same as for non-constant
expressions.  The clause you're referring to says that precision and range
*may not be less* than that available at run time.  I would interpret that
as a clarification and a warning to implementors, not as a change of the
rules.
-- 
"I don't *want* to be normal!"         | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
"Not to worry."                        |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry