Re: The disturbing myth of Eiffel portability

[kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <dewar.848592914@merv>, dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:
> Larry said
> 
> "To be fair, many of the machines whose native floating point arithmetic
> is non-IEEE were designed before the IEEE standard.  Manufacturers also
> owe some continuity to their existing customers."
> 
> Well the IEEE standard is nearly 20 years old now, so there are very few
> such machines left, and they become of decreasing interest. The only
> really notable exception is the Japanese super computers, which made the
> horrible error of copying junk IBM hex floating-point.

Well the VAX is that age ("nearly 20"), the Alpha supports both VAX
and IEEE formats.  Certainly System/390 is that age, if you allow for
the fact that it includes System/360 capabilities.  I know nothing
about System/360 floating point, but I know MVS has a strong tradition
of supporting the installed base.  Perhaps someone from OC Systems can
comment on support of IEEE by IBM.

Larry Kilgallen