[gnugo-devel] floating point problems

[Arend Bayer]

I just found this in the gcc docs:

   * On 68000 and x86 systems, for instance, you can get paradoxical
     results if you test the precise values of floating point numbers.
     For example, you can find that a floating point value which is not
     a NaN is not equal to itself.  This results from the fact that the
     floating point registers hold a few more bits of precision than
     fit in a `double' in memory.  Compiled code moves values between
     memory and floating point registers at its convenience, and moving
     them into memory truncates them.

     You can partially avoid this problem by using the `-ffloat-store'
     option (*note Optimize Options::).

I guess this can explain all the floating point problems we encountered
in the pre-3.2 platform independency saga.

Arend