Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!emory!mephisto!ncsuvx!news
From: harish@ecebucolix.ncsu.edu (Harish P. Hiriyannaiah)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: FREE
Keywords: calloc, portable, zero
Message-ID: <1990Mar5.174628.9141@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 5 Mar 90 17:46:28 GMT
References: <2263@milton.acs.washington.edu> <1990Mar1.140829.17199@druid.uucp> <2353@dataio.Data-IO.COM>
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In article <2263@milton.acs.washington.edu>,
khan@milton.acs.washington.edu (I Wish) writes:
> 
> (As an aside, does a VAX, with floating-point descriptors or whatever
>  it uses, treat zero-bytes as float 0.0?)
> -- 

> Erik Seaberg (khan@milton.u.washington.edu)


Yes it does, both in 32-bit and 64-bit f.p. formats. The same is true (I think)
for IEEE f.p. formats. (See the Intel 860 programmers handbook for the
exact encoding. I have the book at home........ I will check on it and
post a correction if I am wrong ).

As an aside, what do netters feel about DEC's 64-bit format for floats vs the
IEEE one ? I contend that the DEC format is superior, even though it lacks the
extra exponent-range of the IEEE format. So whadd'yall think ?


harish pu. hi.			harish@ecebucolix.ncsu.edu