Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c++:11842 comp.lang.c:36487
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!pilchuck!dataio!fnx!nazgul!bright
From: bright@nazgul.UUCP (Walter Bright)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: TC++: "floating point formats not linked"
Message-ID: <268@nazgul.UUCP>
Date: 23 Feb 91 17:28:12 GMT
References: <1991Feb9.193059.14322@ucselx.sdsu.edu> <LT5NQEC@methan.chemie.fu-berlin.de>
Reply-To: bright@nazgul.UUCP (Walter Bright)
Organization: Zortech, Seattle
Lines: 25

In article <LT5NQEC@methan.chemie.fu-berlin.de> kirste@methan.chemie.fu-berlin.de (Burkhard Kirste) writes:
/>In TC++, running in "C" mode , the following code gives the error message:
/>"scanf: floating point formats not linked"
/>How do I link them?
/>                        float *w
/>                        fscanf(fp,"%f\n",w);
/I have found that a statement such as
/               atof("");
/would help. Anyway, I think that this "feature" of TC is a nuisance.

In TC, the floating point library is only linked in if one of the OBJ files
for the program contained a floating point operation. This is nice because
if you don't use floating point you don't carry around the bulk of the library
code. The downside is this causes a significant burden on the tech support,
as I have seen this one problem appearing over and over again for *years*.

In ZTC, we use the opposite approach. Floating point is always linked in
by default. If you don't need it, then compile with -mi or link in the
INT.OBJ object module. The upside is we never get tech support calls like
the one above. The downside is many people never notice the -mi switch and
wind up thinking that ZTC generates unnaturally large EXE files. Even many
magazine reviewers have fallen into this error.

I'm all ears if anyone has a suggestion on how to get the best of both
by default.