Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!gatech!udel!mmdf
From: Leisner.Henr@xerox.com (marty)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Anybody floating out there?
Message-ID: <10578@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: 10 Mar 89 16:14:37 GMT
Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU
Lines: 26

Floating point is an interesting issue.  Compiler vendors spend a lot of
resources debugging and testing their floating pointing generation/support
software.

It's interesting to note the amount of software Minix has which doesn't
need floating point.  You also have operating system issues like hardware
support (coprocessors) -- 8087/287/387, Weitek, etc, and context switching
problems.

I don't think ast promotes math illiteracy -- I think Minix promotes
simplicity.

Most (not all) application I've seen professionally which use floating
point can easily be recoded to use integer math.  After all, bits are bits
;-).

If I had to give up something, floating point is something I could
definitely live without.  It's should be possible to cross-compile with a
vendor supplied floating point emulation on Minix.


marty
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