Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!think!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!rg20+ From: rg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Rick Francis Golembiewski) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: 68881 and the PA was:(none) Message-ID: Date: 5 Jan 89 02:11:39 GMT References: <6018@louie.udel.EDU> <533@boing.UUCP> <1434@percival.UUCP> <547@boing.UUCP> <13012@cup.portal.com> <1441@percival.UUCP>, <13145@cup.portal.com> Distribution: na Organization: Carnegie Mellon Lines: 32 In-Reply-To: <13145@cup.portal.com> >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? Yes, they could, in fact I've already done this myself: Using the function definitions that came with the StarBoard Multi function module and Lattice C (NOT using the Lattice MathIeee.lib), I was able to open the mathIEE.library, if it existed, or use the standard Lattice Math (FFP I believe) or open the old (FFP) mathlib.library. However, I had to have a small bit of redundancy in the math portions (ie I had a statement if (mathieeedoubbas != NULL) IEEEMATH(); else FFPMATH(); ). Kind of kludgy, but I must admit that the speedup on Trans. Functions was worth the effort (plus by using preprossor stuff [ ie #ifdef MATHLIB... ] I could easily compile a version with out the Math co-processor code). So, it is possible, although I really doubt that any of the software developers will bother to put it in their code, just because there isn't a whole lot of people with '881s and a lot of the programs that are math intensive use lots of basic (+,-,/,*) operations where the speed of IEEE is about the same with 881 as FFP is in software. Still it would be nice to make use of that co-processor... +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Disclaimer: Me? Post That, impossible I never post anything... | | TypetoYouLater(Everyone); --> "functional Good bye".... | | Rick Golembiewski [ Pronunciation is half the Battle, spelling the other] | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+