On Mon, Mar 12, 2001 at 06:27:40PM -0800, Mark K. Kim wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Mar 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > IEEE 754 includes provisions for overflow notification through NaNs or
> > flags, but most implementations seem to support these features poorly.
>
> Err... shouldn't you get infinity if you overflow?:
>
Not necessarily. See the following, from the libc manual, detailing
the results of an overflow operation:
`Overflow'
This exception is raised whenever the result cannot be
represented
as a finite value in the precision format of the destination. If
no trap occurs the result depends on the sign of the intermediate
result and the current rounding mode (IEEE 754, section 7.3):
1. Round to nearest carries all overflows to oo with the sign
of
the intermediate result.
2. Round toward 0 carries all overflows to the largest
representable finite number with the sign of the
intermediate
result.
3. Round toward -oo carries positive overflows to the largest
representable finite number and negative overflows to -oo.
4. Round toward oo carries negative overflows to the most
negative representable finite number and positive overflows
to oo.
Whenever the overflow exception is raised, the inexact exception
is also raised.
-Micah
