From: Charles Krug <charles AT mail DOT pentek DOT com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Still working on c++ std <limits> file . . .
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 10:19:29 -0500
Organization: Pentek Corporation
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Eli Zaretskii wrote:

> Why should you care about different types of a NaN?  Aren't these
> definitions related to how the FP environment is set up by the library
> startup code?  In other words, if the ``signalling NaN'' doesn't
> really raise any signal, should you care about its definition?

I realize that these are somewhat esoteric questions that don't come up
very often in my work, which is almost exclusively done with integers.  It
is however part of the C++ standard <limits> file.  If I'm generating a
standard conforming <limits> file, I need to know all about those
definitions in excruciating detail, so that someone learning c++ who is
using djgpp, and who is referred to the non-existing <limits> file, can
ask the question, "Hey, I can't find the standard <limits> file," and get
a better answer than, "use climits" which isn't what c++ texts are
referring to at all.

Since I use djgpp and have the knowledge, resources, and time required to
generate the standard <limits> file, which isn't all that difficult given
the correct set of definitions, it seems to me I should make one.


Charles