xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/softfloat/README.txt (revision 8ddb146abcdf061be9f2c0db7e391697dafad85c)
1$NetBSD: README.txt,v 1.1 2000/06/06 08:15:02 bjh21 Exp $
2$FreeBSD$
3
4Package Overview for SoftFloat Release 2a
5
6John R. Hauser
71998 December 13
8
9
10SoftFloat is a software implementation of floating-point that conforms to
11the IEC/IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic.  SoftFloat is
12distributed in the form of C source code.  Compiling the SoftFloat sources
13generates two things:
14
15-- A SoftFloat object file (typically `softfloat.o') containing the complete
16   set of IEC/IEEE floating-point routines.
17
18-- A `timesoftfloat' program for evaluating the speed of the SoftFloat
19   routines.  (The SoftFloat module is linked into this program.)
20
21The SoftFloat package is documented in four text files:
22
23   softfloat.txt          Documentation for using the SoftFloat functions.
24   softfloat-source.txt   Documentation for compiling SoftFloat.
25   softfloat-history.txt  History of major changes to SoftFloat.
26   timesoftfloat.txt      Documentation for using `timesoftfloat'.
27
28Other files in the package comprise the source code for SoftFloat.
29
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'.
36
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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