[Cfp-interest] exceptions and flags

[Jim Thomas]

Good explanation, David. And I agree our purpose is not to re-argue 754-2008. 
-Jim

On Jun 5, 2014, at 7:34 AM, David Hough CFP <pcfp at oakapple.net> wrote:

>> What user problems would arise if some implementations detected underflow exceptions as tiny and inexact?
> 
> 
> A more suggestive way to pose the question is
> 
> 
> What user problems would arise if some implementations missed exact underflow
> exceptions?
> 
> 
> In order for subsequent scaling to work as expected, an algorithm might
> depend on the normal case producing only normalized data, relying on catching
> overflow and underflow exceptions to go into more complicated processing
> in the exceptional case.    That's why 754-1985 defines underflow to trap
> whether or not exact.
> 
> I think I objected both during 1985 and 2008 development, to no avail.
> It's the way it is on purpose, not by accident, whether or not we agree
> that the purpose is convincing.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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