Post #2797253

2026-04-14 21:52 UTC

@Doomed_Daniel@mastodon.gamedev.place @zeux@mastodon.gamedev.place @lisyarus@mastodon.gamedev.place Again, I don't understand what power you think the standard has here, though. They can write all kinds of things into IEEE-754 that are then summarily ignored. This is pretty much exactly how IEEE 754s traps have been handled by most langs for the past 40 years.

Replies (2)

@rygorous@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-04-14 21:55

@Doomed_Daniel@mastodon.gamedev.place @zeux@mastodon.gamedev.place @lisyarus@mastodon.gamedev.place See also langs and environments that always treat subnormals as 0 and so forth. It's just words on a page. What do you think the enforcement mechanism is? The reality of the matter is that anything written in IEEE-754 is exactly as important as its users think it is. Historically speaking, very good track record on the basic stuff (correctly rounded fundamental operations, RN default, certain math lib fns being available), beyond that, very touch and go.

Open ##2797254
@Doomed_Daniel@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-04-14 21:59

@rygorous@mastodon.gamedev.place @zeux@mastodon.gamedev.place @lisyarus@mastodon.gamedev.place my assumption was that if a language/compiler says it implements IEEE 754 that it then by default conforms to that standard - but apparently that was optimistic/naive. either way, this is a massive footgun that has become more relevant recently with x86-64-v3 becoming a popular target

Open ##2797262