On 25-Jul-2000, Julian Assange <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Fergus Henderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > Jon Fairbairn was talking about Haskell. MSVC is a C/C++ compiler,
> > not a Haskell compiler. For C and C++, there are many many areas of
> > undefined, unspecified, or implementation-defined behaviour. If a
> > C or C++ program gives different behaviour on different runs or with
> > different compilation flags, this is almost always due to the program
> > depending on one of those areas, rather than due to the compiler not
> > conforming to the standard.
>
> Standard, shmandard. If a compiler can't produce reproducable code,
> then its of little value for scientific computing.
*If* you write C code which strict conforms to the standard, then any
conforming compiler will give you reproducible results.
The only times that you will not get reproducible results is if
you either accidentally or deliberately write code which is not
strictly conforming, if you invoke the compiler in a
non-standard-conforming mode, or if there is a compiler bug.
Writing strictly conforming C code is difficult. Very difficult.
If you want reproducible results, and you don't know how to write
strictly conforming C code, then don't use C! There are plenty of
languages which make it much easier to get reproducible results.
--
Fergus Henderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh> | of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] | -- the last words of T. S. Garp.
