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From: macq@miguel.llnl.gov (Don MacQueen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: IEEE exceptions
Message-ID: <91963@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
Date: 25 Feb 91 20:11:48 GMT
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Reply-To: macq@miguel.llnl.gov (Don MacQueen)
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This is basic stuff, I suppose, and I've looked in the documentation I have available, but I need some help evaluating the following runtime message from my code.  The code involves numerical integration of a normal distribution function.

Warning: the following IEEE floating-point arithmetic exceptions
occurred in this program and were never cleared:
Inexact; Underflow;

This is on a Sun Sparcstation IPC using f77, with or without the -r8 option.

I know why the underflow is occuring, and I have no problem with underflow as long as zero is used in subsequent calculations.

Can I assume that 'Inexact' is occurring for the same reason that underflow is occurring?  What exactly (or inexactly?) does inexact mean?  What does it mean to 'clear an exception'?

Thanks
-- 
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Don MacQueen
macq@miguel.llnl.gov
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