On Sat, Nov 29, 2003 at 12:17:55PM +0100, Anders Hogrelius wrote:

=> Well, I tried compiling perl 5.8.2, and it seems this must be caused by
=> something within the system. I'm running NetBSD 1.5.2, and even with the
=> latest version of perl, I still get:
=> 
=> ahs@hogrelius:~> perl -e 'print exp(0 - 736.285624221884), "\n";'
=> 0
=> 
=> Perhaps one should look for the cause within the compiler or the math
=> library? I compiled perl using gcc 2.95.3.

There have historically been problems with IEEE arithmetic on
NetBSD/alpha.  I know I ran into them back in 1999 trying to get R to
install from pkgsrc.  (See, e.g.,
http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-alpha/1999/12/17/0001.html and the
thread at http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-alpha/2001/01/)

I believe Ross Harvey fixed this, though I don't remember exactly
when.  Also, I've always run -CURRENT on my alpha, so I don't know
when these types of fixes make it into which particular official
release.

I do have a vague recollection (that may be entirely wrong:) that
"-mieee" appeared as default option on alpha builds after the fix went
in, so if you are seeing "-mieee" when, say, building packages, then
your version of NetBSD probably includes the fixed IEEE handling.

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa