Re: Clarification in the docs for possible bugs with the Alpha port

[Chris Devers <cdevers at pobox dot com>]

On Sat, 2 Aug 2003, Falk Hueffner wrote:

> Chris Devers <cdevers@pobox.com> writes:
>
> > In this version of the manual, at the end of section 10.3 on page 309,
> > the text reads as follows:
> >
> >   * On the Alpha, you may get assembler errors about invalid syntax as
> >     a result of floating point constants. This is due to a bug in the
> >     C library functions ecvt, fcvt and gcvt. Given valid floating
> >     point numbers, they sometimes print 'NaN'.
> >
> > Many of the bullet points in this chapter describe a general class of
> > problem such as this, and then offer a suggested workaround. No such
> > workaround is offered here. Is there a way the user can try to avoid
> > floating point numbers being interpreted as NaN on the Alpha, or are
> > they just stuck?
>
> Remove the paragraph. gcc emits .long for floating point constants since
> at least 2.95, so it shouldn't occur any more.


Excellent news, the change will be made as you suggest. Thanks! :)


By the way, if anything else in the book jumps out at anyone as being
outdated, please let me know -- on list or directly to cdevers@pobox.com.
I'm not familiar with how one version of GCC has differed from others, so
while I can check to make sure things make sense as stated, I won't know
if any of the material is outdated & so should be rewritten or purged.

Thanks again -- a final draft should be posted to the list for review by
early next week.



-- 
Chris Devers    cdevers@pobox.com