Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!purdue!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!DMasterson
From: DMasterson@cup.portal.com (David Scott Masterson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: 68881 and the PA was:(none)
Message-ID: <13145@cup.portal.com>
Date: 3 Jan 89 03:06:44 GMT
References: <6018@louie.udel.EDU> <533@boing.UUCP> <1434@percival.UUCP> <547@boing.UUCP> <13012@cup.portal.com> <1441@percival.UUCP>
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Organization: The Portal System (TM)
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In article <1441@percival.UUCP>, billc@percival.UUCP writes:
>In article <13012@cup.portal.com> Doug_B_Erdely@cup.portal.com writes:
>>Ok guys.. I have a CMI PA. If I get the math chip and use 1.3.. Will ANY AND
>>ALL programs math routines be speeded up, or does a program have to be written
>>just for a math chip??? In other words... HOW transparent is this to the
>>System??
>>
>> Doug_B_Erdely@Portal.Cup.Com
>
>Doug (and everyone else interested):
>
>  The math chip will only speed up IEEE math functions, not FFP, or regular
>  integer/transcendental math functions.
>
>   What it will speed up: Programs that are compiled to use IEEE by the IEEE
>   libraries (provided on the WB1.3 enhancer or the PA disk).
>
>               William J. Coldwell - Amiga Attitude Adjuster
>  CRYOGENIC SOFTWARE - 3647 W 97th #21B - Denver, CO 80030 - (303) 465-1330
> "We the unwilling, led by the unknowing,   ...tektronix!reed!percival!billc
>  are doing the impossible, for the ungrateful."       \sequent!blowpig/

Curiousity question:

Can software be compiled in such a way as to leave it up to the consumer which
math library (or any libraries with competing types) is used in a generic
sort of fashion?  For instance, could it be set up such that an ASSIGN could
specify which library to use?  Would the program necessarily become more
memory expensive or could the expense be hidden (well...) in another library
that is loaded at run-time?

Why would software developers want to do this?  Some programs might run best
usinginteger arithmetic in the average system, but a math coprocessor might
significantly improve the average if it was available.  The user would
probably best know the set up in some of these cases.

David Masterson
DMasterson@cup.portal.com