Article View: net.lang.c
Article #9519Re: Ambiguity
From: Chris Torek
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1986 05:31
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1986 05:31
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In article <3773@ism780c.UUCP> marv@ism780c.UUCP (Marv Rubenstein) writes: >And now a question. Is it reasonable to design a language (advertised as >portable) that has ambiguous semantics? Certainly. The tighter the semantics, the harder it is to write good compilers for different machines. The looser the semantics, the harder it is to write portable code. Extreme examples (in both directions) are easy to construct. What, e.g., are the *precise* semantics of a floating point add? What happens if I add 1E-20 to 1E+20? 1E-10 to 1E+10? 1E-1 to 1E+1? Exact semantics here virtually requires the complete specification of floating point format. On the other hand, who would want to use a C-like language where `long' is required only to range from -128 to +127? -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 1516) UUCP: seismo!umcp-cs!chris CSNet: chris@umcp-cs ARPA: chris@mimsy.umd.edu
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!seismo!umcp-cs!chris From: chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (Chris Torek) Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Re: Ambiguity Message-ID: <3738@umcp-cs.UUCP> Date: Wed, 8-Oct-86 01:31:28 EDT Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.3738 Posted: Wed Oct 8 01:31:28 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 8-Oct-86 20:11:49 EDT References: <3773@ism780c.UUCP> Reply-To: chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (Chris Torek) Distribution: net Organization: University of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Sci. Lines: 19