Playing with the bits of floats

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <1100 at l.cc.purdue.edu> cik at l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
>Max wants to do in one or two instructions what the has not been provided
>for in the language.  As I read Doug's remarks, he feels that this is
>inappropriate.

I sure do.  The actual test desired is merely some sort of tolerance
test.  When written in the usual way, a compiler should produce very
good code for the test.  Resorting to bit-twiddling not only should
not produce a noticeable increase in overall program speed, but it
will certainly degrade the reliability, portability, and
maintainability of the program.

As usual, Mr. Rubin maintains that high-level languages like C should
allow him to do everything he can do in assembler, and as usual most
software engineers I know of would disagree.  I don't know how long
it would take to port his, or other detailed bit-twiddling code, to
a new environment, but I do know how long it takes to port mine
(close to zero time).  This frees up my time for other things such as
working on new applications.  I have trouble imagining why that is
not an equally important criterion for others.  Do they really LIKE
to bit twiddle instead of work on new projects?