Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!cottrell@nbs-vms.ARPA From: cottrell@nbs-vms.ARPA (COTTRELL, JAMES) Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Float:16 Message-ID: <1869@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Wed, 2-Oct-85 15:01:29 EDT Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1869 Posted: Wed Oct 2 15:01:29 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 4-Oct-85 04:22:22 EDT Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA Lines: 21 > > > Then you can define > > > > > > float foo:16; > > > > > > if you really think you can do something useful with 16-bit floats. Someone > > > must use them for something... > > > > Just such a construct is used in the accounting software in many UNIX System > > kernels. It seems to suffice for the application. > > Great, a violation of the C language spec in the kernel. Not really. I haven't axually seen it, but here's my theory: There must be a union of short[2] & float somewhere in the (which?) kernel. The magic numbers are computed in float and the short[0] is written out to a file, the lower mantissa bits being deemed worthless. Not a violation, just (nonportable) bit fiddling. jim cottrell@nbs */ ------