awk and stdio-common/tst-printf-format-as-double* trouble (mpfr support needed)

[Maciej W. Rozycki]

Hi Arnold,

> The longer story:
> 
> - Adding MPFR was a mistake. This became clear only in retrospect.
>   But it's been there for so long I'm very hesitant to remove it.

 As a matter of interest would your please share the technical rationale 
behind your conclusion?  The social factor, however regrettable, must only 
have been secondary if any at all.

> - It took years until I could get identical results from the test suite
>   for MPFR and non-MPFR (although I have that now).

 I do believe MPFR is still the only way to produce FP results beyond the 
precision implemented by the host system.  I suppose it's also the way to 
produce IEEE 754 results for non-IEEE FP hosts such as NetBSD/VAX.  Am I 
missing anything here?

 Of course none of that matters for the test cases concerned, they do not 
require any extra precision, but only need a reference implementation that 
is not the one under test.  This was my rationale to choose GAWK here, and 
I do hope it wasn't a mistake of mine.

 Also I hope you share the GNU Project's principle of making free software 
superior to any and all alternatives, and especially proprietary ones.  I 
certainly do.  And from this point of view making use of MPFR, also a part 
of the GNU Project, to circumvent hardware or OS limitations seems in line 
with the spirit of the project.

> - A major asshole of a user who liked to use MPFR to show off how bright
>   he was complained when things didn't meet his expectations and strongly
>   insulted me, publicly.

 Sorry to hear about it and I realise that to conclude that it's that 
person's problem does not cover you for the harm received.

> - At that point I put MPFR on parole. It's not unmaintained though; one
>   of my team has volunteered to help with bugs, although since then
>   there haven't been any that I haven't been able to deal with.

 Thank you for taking care of that and for taking care of GAWK in the 
first place.  It is a major effort and the GNU Project wouldn't survive 
without people like you.

 And last but not least, happy 2025!

  Maciej