[lsb-discuss] roadmap synchronization and backward compatibility

[Nick Stoughton]

On Fri, 2006-07-28 at 08:48 -0700, Wichmann, Mats D wrote:
>  

> matherr() is in the LSB, but should never have been. this
> was an old construct to allow a kind of exception handling
> in the pre-IEEE-floating-point days (there are new mechanisms
> for that for IEEEfp).  the last reference specification that
> listed this interface was the old SVID 3rd edition, which
> listed it as deprecated as of 1989! LSB-conforming programs
> that use the math library are to use IEEE floating point.
> So including this in LSB and requiring distros to provide
> support is just plain silly and I'd like to get rid of it.

matherr() is an interface that should be only in architecture specific
supplements, and not the generic core. And of the seven architectures we
have today, it isn't needed in any of them. But if we were to add an
architecture that did not use IEEE FP, then it might be useful.

But I agree with your sentiment 100%. 
-- 
Nick Stoughton                          Cell: 510 388 1413
USENIX Standards Liaison                Fax:  510 548 5738