On Thu, Feb 22, 2024 at 5:01 PM James Cloos <cl...@jhcloos.com> wrote:
> >>>>> "SM" == Stavros Macrakis <macra...@gmail.com> writes: > > SM> Lisp arithmetic should be compatible with IEEE float arithmetic. > > There are cases where other forms of floats make sense. > > Such as posits or arbitrary precision floats. > > (The underlying hardware may lack fp, or may use posits or the like.) > > Packages like maxima should work even when non-754 formats are used. > Is there any existing lisp that doesn't support IEEE single and double precision floats? I'm not aware of any. I don't see any chip maker supporting posits and removing IEEE floats anytime soon. That might break all kinds of important code. (I saw Kahan debate Gustafson about this a few years ago at an ARITH conf. Really interesting.) Clisp has long-floats that are arbitrary precision. Cmucl has double-double-floats. I think maxima might still support building with these as the default float type, but since they're significantly slower than IEEE floats, I don't think anyone uses this ability. (And if the code still exists, I'd propose removing it, at least for cmucl.) -- Ray
