From peren!uunet!ARL.MIL!gwyn Tue Sep 23 17:10 PDT 1997 Return-Path: Received: by cobra. (5.x/SMI-SVR4) id AA08300; Tue, 23 Sep 1997 17:10:05 -0700 id QAA22471; Tue, 23 Sep 1997 16:43:42 -0700 (peer crosschecked as: [128.63.58.14]) id QQdihk06252; Tue, 23 Sep 1997 18:08:49 -0400 (EDT) >Received: by (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id QAA22471; Tue, 23 Sep 1997 16:43:42 -0700 >Received: from smokey.arl.mil by relay5.UU.NET with SMTP (peer crosschecked as: [128.63.58.14]) id QQdihk06252; Tue, 23 Sep 1997 18:08:49 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 23 Sep 97 18:04:52 EDT From: "Douglas A. Gwyn (IST)" To: john c benito Subject: Re: Rationale for Signed integer division Message-Id: <9709231804.aa09997@SMOKEY.ARL.MIL> Content-Type: text Content-Length: 6482 Status: RO Document Number: WG14 N617/X3J11 96-081 C9X Revision Proposal ===================== Title: Specify truncation for signed integer division Author: Douglas A. Gwyn Author Affiliation: United States Army Research Laboratory Postal Address: 801-L Cashew Court, Bel Air, MD 21014, USA E-mail Address: gwyn@arl.mil Telephone Number: +1-410-278-8945 Fax Number: +1-410-278-2934 Sponsor: X3J11 Date: 1996-09-13 Document History: Proposal from Tom MacDonald was approved, but consensus was not reached on the proper wording. The present author submitted Document Number WG14 N613/X3J11 96-077 as an attempt to reach consensus. The present paper is intended to replace that document, to incorporate a suggestion made by the review subgroup: the 6.3.5 wording was streamlined. Proposal Category: __ Editorial change/non-normative contribution __ Correction __ New feature __ Addition to obsolescent feature list __ Addition to Future Directions x_ Other (please specify) tighten up semantics Area of Standard Affected: __ Environment x_ Language x_ Preprocessor x_ Library __ Macro/typedef/tag name x_ Function __ Header x_ Other (please specify) run-time semantics Prior Art: Fortran Target Audience: all C programmers, porters of code from Fortran to C Related Documents (if any): ANSI X3.9-1978, ISO 1539-1980 (programming language FORTRAN), ANSI X3.198-1992 & ISO/IEC 1539:1992 (Fortran 90) Proposal Attached: x_ Yes __ No, but what's your interest? Abstract: Currently, the C standard (C89) permits some flexibility in the implementation of signed integer division; when the division is inexact and one of the operands is negative, the result may be rounded up or rounded down, in an implementation-defined manner. (The behavior of the % operator is required to be consistent with that of the / operator.) This differs from Fortran, which requires that the result must definitely be truncated toward zero. Fortran- like behavior is permitted by C89, but it is not required. The origin of this practice seems to have been a desire to map C's division directly to the "natural" behavior of the target instruction set, whatever it may be, without requiring extra code overhead that might be necessary to check for special cases and enforce a particular behavior. However, the argument that Fortran programmers are unpleasantly surprised by this aspect of C and that there would be negligible impact on code efficiency was accepted by WG14, who agreed to require Fortran-like behavior in C9x. Previous attempts to devise wording for this change did not attain consensus; the present proposal takes a somewhat more radical approach, which avoids previous ambiguities. Proposal: The intent is to require signed integer division where at least one operand is negative to "truncate toward zero". Change in 6.3.5 Multiplicative operators, Semantics, from: When integers are divided and the division is inexact, if both operands are positive the result of the / operator is the largest integer less than the algebraic quotient and the result of the % operator is positive. If either operand is negative, whether the result of the / operator is the largest integer less than or equal to the algebraic quotient or the smallest integer greater than or equal to the algebraic quotient is implementation-defined, as is the sign of the result of the % operator. to: When integers are divided, the result of the / operator is the algebraic quotient with any fractional part discarded. [FOOTNOTE: This is often called ``truncation toward zero''.] (Note that the relation between % and / is preserved.) Change in 7.10.6.2 The div function, Description from: If the division is inexact, the resulting quotient is the integer of lesser magnitude that is the nearest to the algebraic quotient. to: The returned quotient is the algebraic quotient with any fractional part discarded. In the Rationale document, replace the first paragraph of 6.3.5 Multiplicative operators with: In C89, division of integers involving negative operands could round upward or downward, in an implementation-defined manner; the intent was to avoid incurring overhead in run-time code to check for special cases and enforce specific behavior. However, in Fortran the result would always truncate toward zero, and the overhead seems to be acceptable to the numeric programming community. Therefore, C9x now requires similar behavior, which should facilitate porting of code from Fortran to C. The table in subsection 7.10.6.2 of this document illustrates the required semantics. In the Rationale document, change the first sentence of 7.10.6.2 The div function from: div and ldiv provide a well-specified semantics for signed integral division and remainder operations. to: Because C89 had implementation-defined semantics for division of signed integers when negative operands were involved, div and ldiv were invented to provide well-specified semantics for signed integral division and remainder operations. In the Rationale document, add a new paragraph at the end of 7.10.6.2 The div function: Now that C9x requires similar semantics for the division operator, the main reason for new programs to use div or ldiv is to simultaneously obtain quotient and remainder.