08-251r3
To: J3
From: Steve Lionel
Subject: Comment J32037 from J. Giles
Date: 2008 August 14

Commenter's Subject was "The g0 edit descriptor"

According to the draft document:

  C1007 (R1006) For the G edit descriptor, d shall be
   specified if and only if w is not zero.

To me this eliminates any value the g0 feature might
have.  What's needed is something like list-directed
output but with the precision controlled by the
programmer.

For example, in order for an input item to have the
same internal value as the original value that was
output, the output must generally carry at least 9
digits (for IEEE single precision).

If the ability to specify d were present, G would
probably become my main output edit descriptor.  I was
looking forward to g0 before I found that it wasn't
allowed a d part.

J3's response:

J3 agrees that this would be a useful feature.

Edit:

[p243, 10.3.2]
Delete "and only if" from C1007

Add new constraint after C1007:
"C1007+ (R1006) For the G edit descriptor, <e> shall not be
specified if <w> is zero."

[p253, 10.7.5.1]
Replace "the external field occupies <w> positions; for real or complex data"
with "the external field occupies <w> positions. For real or complex data"

[p254, 10.7.5.2.2 p2]
Replace with:
"When used to specify the output of real or complex data, the
G0 and G0.<d> edit descriptors follow the rules for the
ES<w>.<d>E<e> edit descriptor. Reasonable processor-dependent
values of <w>, <d> (if not specified), and <e> are used with
each output value."