Re: [boost] [fixed_point] Request for interest in a binary fixed point library

Subject: Re: [boost] [fixed_point] Request for interest in a binary fixed point library
From: Phil Endecott (spam_from_boost_dev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-04-11 14:23:01

Hi Vicente,

Vicente J. Botet Escriba wrote:
> the recent discussion on the MultiplePrecission Arithmetic library has 
> show that some people has its ow fixed point library.

You might like to review old discussions of fixed point, e.g.:

    http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel/157744
    http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel/158019
    http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel/178257

and several other threads.

> Is there an interest in a Boost library having as base
> http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2012/n3352.html?

Thanks for pointing out that doc which I'd not seen before.  I've not 
yet read it properly.

FWIW, my view is that:

- Some people conflate fixed point with features like saturation, which 
I would prefer to decouple.  Fixed-point arithmetic without saturation 
is useful, as is integer arithmetic with saturation.  So I'd prefer to 
make them orthogonal, but compatible, concepts.

- There are difficult decisions to make about the result types of 
arithmetic operations, analogous to this:

   int32_t a, b;
   int64_t c;
   c = a+b;  // oops.

It is tempting to make the return type of e.g. operator+ large enough 
to accommodate the largest possible sum, and to truncate only when the 
assignment occurs.  But I think this will have an unavoidable runtime 
overhead.  Some will argue that expression templates can be used to 
work around this, but that dramatically increases the complexity of the library.

- There are also difficult decisions to make about implicit and 
explicit conversions.

These are some of the same questions that you asked in your post.  
Different people will have different requirements.  It is perhaps 
because of this that everyone tends to "roll their own", and no 
standard implementation has emerged.

Regards,  Phil.