Status of ISO/IEC TR 24733 library idea?

Hi, There is ISO/IEC TR 24733 draft on decimal floating-point arithmetic. I found old thread by Stefan Slapeta: Decimal floating point library [1] I wonder, what is status of this idea in Boost? [1] http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2006/02/101457.php Best regards, -- Mateusz Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net

There is ISO/IEC TR 24733 draft on decimal floating-point arithmetic. I found old thread by Stefan Slapeta: Decimal floating point library [1] I wonder, what is status of this idea in Boost?
I don't think anyone in Boost is working on it (that I know of) - it appears there was a C++ reference implementation available on the IBM website, but it looks like it might have been removed :-( In the mean time, some of us have been working on extended precision arithmetic (see "big_number" directory in the sandbox) using Christopher Kormanyos' e_float code for decimal arithmetic. Now that I've been reminded of IBM's C lib reference implementation of decNumber, I'll add support for that as well.... could make a good test case. Regards, John.

On 6 December 2011 09:58, John Maddock <boost.regex@virgin.net> wrote:
There is ISO/IEC TR 24733 draft on decimal floating-point arithmetic. I found old thread by Stefan Slapeta: Decimal floating point library [1] I wonder, what is status of this idea in Boost?
I don't think anyone in Boost is working on it (that I know of) - it appears there was a C++ reference implementation available on the IBM website, but it looks like it might have been removed :-(
decNumber++ is still listed here http://goo.gl/mOqSI but the download is missing indeed If I'm looking in the right direction, decNumber++ was developed by Robert Klarer and implements the interfaces specified in the ISO/IEC TR 24733: http://speleotrove.com/decimal/ I found some references to Robert's activity here: http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2003/07/50268.php I have no idea if the decNumber++ is the mentioned GPL'ed reference implementation, but perhaps it is not and Robert would be willing to contribute it to Boost.
In the mean time, some of us have been working on extended precision arithmetic (see "big_number" directory in the sandbox) using Christopher Kormanyos' e_float code for decimal arithmetic.
Thanks, I'll take a look.
Now that I've been reminded of IBM's C lib reference implementation of decNumber, I'll add support for that as well.... could make a good test case.
So, it is the decNumber. Best regards, -- Mateusz Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net

-----Original Message----- From: boost-bounces@lists.boost.org [mailto:boost-bounces@lists.boost.org] On Behalf Of Mateusz Loskot Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 11:40 PM To: boost@lists.boost.org Subject: [boost] Status of ISO/IEC TR 24733 library idea?
Hi,
There is ISO/IEC TR 24733 draft on decimal floating-point arithmetic. I found old thread by Stefan Slapeta: Decimal floating point library [1] I wonder, what is status of this idea in Boost?
[1] http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2006/02/101457.php
Sadly the GPL license put a blocker on using any of IBM's code inside Boost, as was noted by several people at the time http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2006/02/101466.php We need someone to start from scratch in a 'clean room'? GSoC project? Paul --- Paul A. Bristow, Prizet Farmhouse, Kendal LA8 8AB UK +44 1539 561830 07714330204 pbristow@hetp.u-net.com

On 6 December 2011 10:15, Paul A. Bristow <pbristow@hetp.u-net.com> wrote:
-----Original Message----- From: boost-bounces@lists.boost.org [mailto:boost-bounces@lists.boost.org] On Behalf Of Mateusz Loskot Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 11:40 PM To: boost@lists.boost.org Subject: [boost] Status of ISO/IEC TR 24733 library idea?
Hi,
There is ISO/IEC TR 24733 draft on decimal floating-point arithmetic. I found old thread by Stefan Slapeta: Decimal floating point library [1] I wonder, what is status of this idea in Boost?
[1] http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2006/02/101457.php
Sadly the GPL license put a blocker on using any of IBM's code inside Boost, as was noted by several people at the time
Trying to understand this situation around decNumber and its derivatives: There is C library decNumber which has been released by IBM under ICU License (X/BSD-like?). The decNumber is included in GCC [1]. Next, the C++ library decNumber++ was based on the decNumber and implemented ISO/IEC TR 24733 interface [2]. Strangely, it seems [3] the decNumber++ was released under terms of more restrictive license, GPL. I understand ICU License is not the same as Boost Licence, so copying decNumber.c|h is not possible, but perhaps it is possible to have a student who reimplements Boost.Decimal from scratch and with "inspiration" (grey area?) from decNumber.c|h [1] http://gcc.gnu.org/svn/gcc/trunk/libdecnumber/ [2] Listed at IBM developerWorks but download is missing http://goo.gl/mOqSI [3] http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=151629&tstart=0 Best regards, -- Mateusz Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net

There is ISO/IEC TR 24733 draft on decimal floating-point arithmetic. I found old thread by Stefan Slapeta: Decimal floating point library [1] I wonder, what is status of this idea in Boost?
[1] http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2006/02/101457.php
Sadly the GPL license put a blocker on using any of IBM's code inside Boost, as was noted by several people at the time
http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2006/02/101466.php
We need someone to start from scratch in a 'clean room'?
GSoC project?
Maybe not: decNumber is dual licensed (not sure if this is a new development or not), but the C code is available under the terms of the ICU license which is probably Boost-compatible (looks to be nearly the same as the old SGI STL license from which ours is derived) http://source.icu-project.org/repos/icu/icu/trunk/license.html And current decNumber download under those terms from http://speleotrove.com/decimal/#decNumber. HTH, John.
participants (3)
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John Maddock
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Mateusz Łoskot
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Paul A. Bristow