README.txt revision 129203 
1848Smichaelm$NetBSD: README.txt,v 1.1 2000/06/06 08:15:02 bjh21 Exp $
22362Sohair$FreeBSD: head/lib/libc/softfloat/README.txt 129203 2004-05-14 12:13:06Z cognet $
3848Smichaelm
4848SmichaelmPackage Overview for SoftFloat Release 2a
5848Smichaelm
6848SmichaelmJohn R. Hauser
7848Smichaelm1998 December 13
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9848Smichaelm
10848SmichaelmSoftFloat is a software implementation of floating-point that conforms to
11848Smichaelmthe IEC/IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic.  SoftFloat is
12848Smichaelmdistributed in the form of C source code.  Compiling the SoftFloat sources
13848Smichaelmgenerates two things:
14848Smichaelm
15848Smichaelm-- A SoftFloat object file (typically `softfloat.o') containing the complete
16848Smichaelm   set of IEC/IEEE floating-point routines.
17848Smichaelm
18848Smichaelm-- A `timesoftfloat' program for evaluating the speed of the SoftFloat
192362Sohair   routines.  (The SoftFloat module is linked into this program.)
202362Sohair
212362SohairThe SoftFloat package is documented in four text files:
22848Smichaelm
23848Smichaelm   softfloat.txt          Documentation for using the SoftFloat functions.
24848Smichaelm   softfloat-source.txt   Documentation for compiling SoftFloat.
25848Smichaelm   softfloat-history.txt  History of major changes to SoftFloat.
26848Smichaelm   timesoftfloat.txt      Documentation for using `timesoftfloat'.
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28Other files in the package comprise the source code for SoftFloat.
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30Please be aware that some work is involved in porting this software to other
31targets.  It is not just a matter of getting `make' to complete without
32error messages.  I would have written the code that way if I could, but
33there are fundamental differences between systems that I can't make go away.
34You should not attempt to compile SoftFloat without first reading both
35`softfloat.txt' and `softfloat-source.txt'.
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37At the time of this writing, the most up-to-date information about
38SoftFloat and the latest release can be found at the Web page `http://
39HTTP.CS.Berkeley.EDU/~jhauser/arithmetic/SoftFloat.html'.
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