From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Jeffrey A Law <law@hurl.cygnus.com>
To: Joe Buck <jbuck@Synopsys.COM>
Cc: moshier@mediaone.net, tprince@cat.e-mail.com, bosch@gnat.com, burley@gnu.org, egcs@cygnus.com, hjstein@bfr.co.il
Subject: Re: /internet 
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 19:37:00 -0000
Message-id: <25711.913779320@hurl.cygnus.com>
References: <199812160320.TAA11586@atrus.synopsys.com>
X-SW-Source: 1998-12/msg00559.html

  In message < 199812160320.TAA11586@atrus.synopsys.com >you write:
  > If I understand correctly, Jeff's proposal was to respect ordering when
  > the user provides parentheses, but to leave the compiler free to do
  > reordering when the user does not provide parentheses.
  > 
  > That is, for
  > 
  > 	y = a * b * c * d;
  > 
  > the compiler could do the multiplications in any order, but for
  > 
  > 	y = a * (b * (c * d));
  > 
  > the compiler is forced to follow the specified order.
  > 
  > I believe that this is consistent with what the relevant language standards
  > specify.
You understand my suggestions correctly.

But I'm neither a language lawyer, nor an ieee/fp expert, so you have to take
my suggestions with some care.  I certainly wouldn't actually make such changes
without being 100% they're safe according to the language specs and don't
violate the principle of least suprise too often.  For that I would have to
lean on folks in on this list to guide me through the pitfalls of each
language and ieee/fp.

jeff