Sebastian, I don't agree on this one.
I think the internal data format should be the one predominantly used on the
platform. The fact that some database might use a different format can
easily be handled in the glue in xs, or whatever. I've never used pack
myself, so I'm not up on what the implications are, but I think we should
use the format which is mostly used on the Alpha. I am not sure, but isn't
reading binary data from files (using Perl) a bit tricky anyway? (assuming
they were not written by a VMS perl, at any rate...)?
I do agree that having the conversion routines makes it a minor point,
though...
Carl
-----Original Message-----
From: BAZLEY, Sebastian [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 1:54 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [patch: perl@7045] vms updates - IEEE build
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Craig A. Berry [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>Sent: 13 September 2000 18:17
>To: BAZLEY, Sebastian
>Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: RE: [patch: perl@7045] vms updates - IEEE build
>
>
>At 05:30 PM 9/13/2000 +0100, BAZLEY, Sebastian wrote:
>>
>>Is there a requirement to keep VAX floats?
>
[snip]
I just meant that if one could standardise on IEEE float, then Perl should
work with Ingres etc. It would also be consistent with any new data files
containing floats.
But there could (would) be backwards compatibility problems.
Anyone who has been using Perl for a while on Alpha may have a lot of data
files that are not in IEEE format. Likewise for sites with VAX and AXP.
Unless one can readily support both formats in a single version of Perl, I
see the problem as a trade-off between VAX + backward compatibility versus
database compatibility + using a float format that is "standard" for all but
VAXen.
[I assume here that Perl itself doesn't depend on the floating point format,
so that it will work as before if compiled with IEEE throughout.]
I would favour making IEEE the default, the assumption being that sites that
make a lot of use of Perl and have data files in non-IEEE float format would
probably be more aware of the issues involved, and could therefore be more
able to take the decision to use non-IEEE format.
Hope that makes sense.
--
Sebastian Bazley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The opinions expressed herein are my own, and are not necessarily endorsed
by my employer ...
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