At 04:50 PM 1/9/2005, Stefan Slapeta wrote:
Beman Dawes wrote:
I asked on one of the committee reflectors, and the response was that the library IBM licenses isn't what is being standardized, so there is no issue. For C, what will be standardized are built-in data types, not
a library. For C++, what will be standardized may be a library, but it will be designed for C++.
From a user's perspective, yes. Internally, the solution will be based on the same C interface to enable any hardware support for the future, no?
It isn't clear yet. It is possible that C will treat the three decimal types as built-ins, while C++ will provide a library solution. That is probably unlikely, but at this early stage it is still possible. Bill Plauger is the point man for both C and C++ committees, and his thinking is given in: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2004/n1567.htm Note that the operations available are not specified as a C interface, but rather in a metalanguage. See: http://www2.hursley.ibm.com/decimal/decarith.pdf That document also explains the rounding modes available, exceptions, etc.
Sorry, I'm having trouble understanding your meaning. Are you saying in
effect that decimal types should have be standardized in C and C++ a long time ago?
Yes, today there are some proposals for extensions that I bet are useful for _much_ less people than a decimal data type would be.
Both C and C++ committees are committed to decimal arithmetic technical reports, so even though the details are as yet unclear, it is probable that the two languages will get decimal arithmetic. A case of better late than never, I suppose. --Beman