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From: ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: How to test for +/- INFINITY, etc. in C with IEEE
Message-ID: <4695@alice.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Dec-85 11:32:21 EST
Article-I.D.: alice.4695
Posted: Thu Dec 12 11:32:21 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Dec-85 08:45:29 EST
References: <993@turtlevax.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 17

> The C compiler should assume that only decimal constants need be
> converted from integer to floating point.

> Octal and hexadecimal constants are used to represent bit patterns, not
> numbers.  There is no reason that the compiler should assume that a
> particular bit pattern represents an integer rather than a
> floating-point number or something even more exotic.

Every constant is an expression.  Every expression has a type.
The meaning of an operator depends only on the type of the expressions
that are its operand and on which operator it is.

If you need to get at the bits in a float, do something like this:

	union {float f; long l;} bits;
	bits.f = ....;
	if ((bits.l & 0x7f800000) == 0x7f800000) ...