Poor me... (was: Re: [PATCH, RFA] Reworked fix for PR4402)

[Paolo Carlini]

Nathan Myers wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 02, 2001 at 01:26:40AM +0100, Paolo Carlini wrote:
> > of course there is *no* grouping at all for float types...
> > (see, f.i., Langer/Kreft 571-572).   May I say that I have
> > been a little bit sidetracked by the comment at the beginning of
> > _M_widen_float?
>
> Not so fast.  The restriction of grouping to integer types is
> manifestly a typo in the standard, and the subject of a Defect
> Report.  Since the standard unambiguously requires parsing
> separators in floats, there's little room to argue that the
> restriction was intended and understood by the comittee.
>
> (Apparently Plauger noticed the typo before the standard was
> ratified, but kept quiet about it because it made less work
> for himself.  Now he is arguing that because he implemented it
> that way, it shouldn't be fixed.  However, since he also failed
> to implement parsing and will be obliged to fix that, his position
> is weak.)

Thanks for your authoritative clarification. I'm not a language lawyer, but what you are
saying seems very reasonable and it is the real reason why I believed that *somewhere* the
library did in fact group those floats.

However, the truth is, the *present* libstc++-v3 code does *not* group float types and
that comment is not coherent with the code. Do you believe we should start implementing
that? What's the official status of the Defect Report? It could be an interesting project.

By the way, what do you think of the "exponential allocation" patch? Without your neat
statements in July, probably we would'nt be working so hard at it!

Cheers,
Paolo.