Re: [PORTS] Geometry test on NetBSD (was Re: [HACKERS] RC1?)

[Henry B. Hotz]

At 1:15 AM -0500 11/20/02, Tom Lane wrote:

Bruce Momjian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

 Tom, can you clarify why -0 is valid.

The IEEE spec absolutely thinks that -0 and +0 are distinct entities.
I don't remember why, at one in the morning ... but if you insist I'm
sure that plenty sufficient numerical-analysis reasons can be produced.
The guys who wrote that spec knew what they were doing (that's why it's
been adopted so universally).

It's so that 1/(1/-infinity) == -infinity. There are probably other reasons as well.

I'm just guessing here, but it's possible NetBSD acquired the bug by trying to be functional on non-IEEE hardware. I hope that whoever found the problem (I don't see that in this thread) filed a bug report with NetBSD.
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