Document: WG14 N1378
Submitter: Fred Tydeman (USA)
Submission Date: 2009-03-31
Previous version of paper: N1303, N1317, N1352
Related WG14 documents: N1151, N1171
Related WG21 documents: N2798
Subject: xxx_TRUE_MIN macros for <float.h>
Existing practice: Many implementation have macros (with various spellings) for the minimum positive subnormal numbers. C++ has similar symbols.
This is a rewrite based upon feedback from the committee.
Changes to C1x
Add new bullets to 5.2.4.2.2 Characteristics of floating types <float.h>
[bullet after FLT_MIN] minimum positive floating-point number. If subnormal numbers are present, their value is the minimum positive subnormal (also known as denormal) floating-point number, otherwise the minimum positive normal floating-point number, of the respective types.
FLT_TRUE_MIN 1E-37 DBL_TRUE_MIN 1E-37 LDBL_TRUE_MIN 1E-37
[bullet after FLT_MIN] The presence or absence of subnormal numbers are characterized by the values:
-1 Indeterminate (cannot be determined if type allows subnormal values) 0 Absent (type does not allow subnormal values) +1 Present (type does allow subnormal values and operations on those values follow IEC 60559)
for each respective type via:
FLT_HAS_SUBNORM DBL_HAS_SUBNORM LDBL_HAS_SUBNORM
[paragraph 15, example 2] Remove "normalized" from just before IEC 60559.
Add
FLT_TRUE_MIN 1.40129846E-45 // decimal constant FLT_TRUE_MIN 0X1P-149F // hex constant FLT_HAS_SUBNORM +1 DBL_TRUE_MIN 4.9406564584124654E-324 // decimal constant DBL_TRUE_MIN 0X1P-1074 // hex constant DBL_HAS_SUBNORM +1after FLT_MIN and DBL_MIN.
Words for Rationale:
[add to 5.2.4.2.2 section] For applications that need to check, at translation time, if subnormal floating-point numbers are supported, can check for xxx_HAS_SUBNORM having the value +1, where xxx is FLT, DBL, or LDBL.
The values of the smallest subnormal floating-point numbers (if supported) are typically, but not always, FLT_MIN*FLT_EPSILON, DBL_MIN*DBL_EPSILON, LDBL_MIN*LDBL_EPSILON.