Re: [PATCH] libstdc++: std::to_chars std::{,b}float16_t support

[Jakub Jelinek <jakub@redhat.com>]

On Fri, Oct 28, 2022 at 12:52:44PM -0400, Patrick Palka wrote:
> IIRC for hex formatting of denormals I opted to be consistent with how
> glibc printf formats them, instead of outputting the truly shortest
> form.

Note, it isn't just denormals,
1.18cp-4
2.318p-5
4.63p-6
8.c6p-7
463p-10
8c6p-11
also represent the same number, the first is what glibc emits (and
is certainly nicer to read), but some of the others are shorter.

Now, the printf %a/%A documentation says that there must be one hexadecimal
digit before the dot if any and that for normalized numbers it must be
non-zero.
So that rules out the last 2, and allows but doesn't require the denormal
treatment the library does right now.
If we shall go really for the shortest, we should handle denormals with
non-zero leading digit too and for all cases consider the 4 shifting
possibilities which one results in shortest (perhaps prefer the smallest
non-zero leading digit among the shortest)?
> > readelf -Ws libstdc++.so.6.0.31 | grep float16_t
> >    912: 00000000000ae824   950 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT   13 _ZSt21__to_chars_bfloat16_tPcS_fSt12chars_format@@GLIBCXX_3.4.31
> >   5767: 00000000000ae4a1   899 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT   13 _ZSt20__to_chars_float16_tPcS_fSt12chars_format@@GLIBCXX_3.4.31
> >    842: 000000000016d430   106 FUNC    LOCAL  DEFAULT   13 _ZN12_GLOBAL__N_113get_ieee_reprINS_23floating_type_float16_tEEENS_6ieee_tIT_EES3_
> >    865: 0000000000170980  1613 FUNC    LOCAL  DEFAULT   13 _ZSt23__floating_to_chars_hexIN12_GLOBAL__N_123floating_type_float16_tEESt15to_chars_resultPcS3_T_St8optionalIiE.constprop.0.isra.0
> >   7205: 00000000000ae824   950 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT   13 _ZSt21__to_chars_bfloat16_tPcS_fSt12chars_format
> >   7985: 00000000000ae4a1   899 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT   13 _ZSt20__to_chars_float16_tPcS_fSt12chars_format
> > so 3568 code bytes together or so.
> 
> Ouch, the instantiation of __floating_to_chars_hex for float16 is
> responsible for nearly 50% of the .so size increase

True, but the increase isn't that huge.

	Jakub