🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <117496@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> khb@sun.UUCP
(Keith Bierman - SPD Languages Marketing -- MTS) writes:
)In article <1989Jul21.035825.27704@cs.rochester.edu>
)crowl@cs.rochester.edu (Lawrence Crowl) writes:
)>[Specifying the rounding mode as part of the operation] involves new
)>hardware design.
)
)[An implementation that] actually uses some macro (or system call) to
)condition the floating point mode shouldn't matter (performance aside).

But performance is the critical issue.  If specifying the rounding mode
on each operation increases the cost by an order of magnitude, programmers
will not use them.  The costs of using rounding modes must be in line with
the benefits of using them.  Currently, the costs are generally too high
for production software.  There is light at the end of the tunnel:

In article <817@acorn.co.uk> RWilson@acorn.co.uk writes:
)the floating point system for the Acorn RISC Machine provides the rounding
)modes as part of the instruction.
-- 
  Lawrence Crowl		716-275-9499	University of Rochester
		      crowl@cs.rochester.edu	Computer Science Department
...!{allegra,decvax,rutgers}!rochester!crowl	Rochester, New York,  14627