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From: greg@suntan.viewlogic.com (Gregory Larkin)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: A question about floating-point with ACK
Message-ID: <1991Jun5.205138.2909@viewlogic.com>
Date: 5 Jun 91 20:51:38 GMT
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Organization: Viewlogic Systems, Inc., Marlboro, MA
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Originator: greg@mobius
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Hi there,

I am using Peter Housel's floating point package installed in
V1.5 with Earl Chew's stdio.  It's all working well, but...

I recently acquired the latest version of the "Enquire" program.
It measures how accurate your compiler is by doing several tests,
including floating point accuracy tests.  While the program is
running, it gets to a certain point and the message:

"Floating pt. overflow" is displayed.  The program is using
the signal() call to trap overflows (I think, I don't a lot about
signals), yet the overflow is not trapped.  I think that the 
program assumes that if SIGFPE is defined that it will be able to
continue correctly in the event of an overflow.  Yet it does not.

Does the FP package just exit upon overflow instead of sending a
SIGFPE?  Could someone enlighten me on this chain of events upon
receiving a floating point overflow?  (Also, setjmp/longjmp are
used with the signal() call to trap the overflow)

Thanks,
-- 
Greg Larkin (ASIC Engineer)|"This is a fragile ball we are living on; 
Viewlogic Systems, Inc.    |it's a miracle and we are destroying it.."
293 Boston Post Road West  |Peter Garrett, Midnight Oil               
Marlboro, MA 01752  (greg@Viewlogic.COM)