From ... Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.freenet.de!newsfeed.stueberl.de!newsfeed.vmunix.org!newsfeed.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news.brutele.be!nmaster.kpnqwest.net!nnum.kpnqwest.net!EU.net!nreader2.kpnqwest.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Subject: Re: Cheating Underflow/Overflow Help Needed References: <3fd88790.0205251954.75a96975@posting.google.com> Mail-Copies-To: never From: Erik Naggum Message-ID: <3231409155397588@naggum.net> Organization: Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway Lines: 14 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 13:39:17 GMT X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@KPNQwest.no X-Trace: nreader2.kpnqwest.net 1022420357 193.71.199.50 (Sun, 26 May 2002 15:39:17 MET DST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 15:39:17 MET DST Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.lisp:33930 * Samantha Skyler | I'm writing a subfunction that uses a lot of expt functions, so it | tends to crash my main program a lot with over/underflow errors. This is so common a request that IEEE 754 has support for not causing an overflow or underflow, but instead return 0 and the largest possible value (as opposed to an internal "infinity" value). This is not directly supported by the Common Lisp standard, but you should find some support for it in your implementation, or, if not, you should request it. -- In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none. In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief. 70 percent of American adults do not understand the scientific process.