Questions about NCEG

[Tom Neff]

In article <1990May30.203146.11442 at twinsun.com> eggert at twinsun.com (Paul Eggert) writes:
>The question is whether an implementation can conform to both ANSI C and IEEE
>754.  For example, IEEE 754 requires that -0.0 and 0.0 be distinguishable.

Where does it say this?  Requiring that "minus zero" have a distinct
*internal* representation from "plus zero" says NOTHING about what a
parser is supposed to do with the string "-0.0".

>Suppose ANSI C somehow required that -0.0 and 0.0 be identical: then, because
>the standards would be inconsistent, an implementation couldn't conform to both
>standards.  

ANSI C does require that the strings "-0.0" and "0.0" parse to the same
internal representation number (right Doug?).  

I think the root problem here is that 754 requires some animals to exist
which X3.159 isn't very helpful in telling us how to write.  I know that
the AT&T V/386 support code for NaN's etc is pretty brutal -- we just
rip into the raw bits and look at subfields. ;-)