Re: Size of Float

[Marin David Condic <mcondic.nospam@acm.org>]

Anthony Busigin wrote:

> Long_Long_Float on Intel chips is 80 bits - not 96 bits.

Try running the following after compiling it on a PC with GNAT 3.13p:

with Ada.Text_IO ;
use  Ada.Text_IO ;
procedure How_Big_Is_Long_Long_Float is
begin
    --
    Put_Line ("Standard.Long_Long_Float'Size:       " &
        Integer'Image (Long_Long_Float'Size)) ;
    Put_Line ("Standard.Long_Long_Float'Digits:     " &
        Integer'Image (Long_Long_Float'Digits)) ;
    --
end How_Big_Is_Long_Long_Float ;

On my machine, the output looks like this:

Standard.Long_Long_Float'Size:        96
Standard.Long_Long_Float'Digits:      18

Granted, the underlying floating point processor hardware may use only 80 of
the 96 bits. The storage size however, is going to be 96 - probably to make
things fall on longword boundaries.

I guess it all depends on what the meaning of the word "size" is? :-)

MDC
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