Public Comment Number PC-UK0123 ISO/IEC CD 9899 (SC22N2620) Public Comment =========================================== Date: 1998-02-25 Author: N.M Maclaren Author Affiliation: Self Postal Address: University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory, New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB3 3QG, United Kingdom E-mail Address: Telephone Number: +44 1223 334761 Fax Number: +44 1223 334679 Number of individual comments: 1 Comment 1. Category: Feature that should be removed Committee Draft subsection: 6.1.3.1 Title: Hexadecimal floating-point constants Detailed description: I can see no good reason for hexadecimal ones and, yes, I do write special functions! It isn't needed for correct rounding, as there are known, acceptably efficient algorithms for doing this for other bases (and have been for 30 years and more.) Admittedly, the worst case is O(N^2) in the size of the value (exponent and all), but that case can be made extremely rare by fairly simple coding. On the other hand, it would be EXTREMELY useful to be able to specify the exact bits in a defined fashion (clearly with an implementation-defined meaning), because that would enable a program to create peculiar values (NaNs, infinities etc.) without playing unspeakable tricks with punning. The current specification is of little or no use with this.