Re: why still use C? [long]

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> In comp.std.c Morris Dovey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > [1] Assuming the standard were changed to include FP-10, will the
> > compiler producers consider the new standard non-relevant, given
> > that it covers hardware not now available anywhere in the world?
> 
> The standard could be changed to accomodate FP-10 without requiring it. 
> I sincerely doubt that the standard would mandate FP-10 without a broad
> concensus among both users and implementors that that was the right
> thing to do.

Moreover, this does not necessarily have anything to do with the
commonness of decimal FP hardware. The C Standard supported FP in
general at a time when many PCs were sold with no FP processor, and
co-processors, emulators and emulation-code-producing compilers were
common.
The only important thing is that decimal FP is seen as important to
_have_, not necessarily to have at high speed - those computers where
decimal speed is of the essence will already have hardware for it (if
only to accomodate things like Cobol), and the rest of us will catch up
later, as we have with normal FP.

Richard
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