J3/00-161

Date:    17 April 2000
To:      J3
From:    John Reid
Subject: Interpretation 005

Here are drafts for the ANSWER and EDITS sections of 005.

ANSWER:
The intention is that the value -1 be returned if the range can be
supported but the precision cannot,  the value -2 be returned if the
precision can be supported but the range cannot, and the value -3 be
returned if neither the precision nor the range can be supported.
Provision needs to be made for the case where each can be supported,
but not in combination. With the edit below, the returned values for
the four invocations will be 16, -4, -1, -1.

EDITS:
Page 266, Clause 13.14.95, lines 11-14 (266: 26-29). Replace 'The
result is -1 ... is supported.' by 'The result is -1 if the processor
does not support a real data type with a precision greater than or
equal to P but does support a real data type with an exponent range
greater than or equal to R, -2 if the processor does not support a real
data type with an exponent range greater than or equal to R but does
support a real data type with a precision greater than or equal to P,
-3 if the processor supports no real data type with either of these
properties, and -4 if the processor supports real data types for each
separately but not together.'