Why does numeric_limits<float>::min() return the minimum, positive,
non-zero (normalized) representable value while numeric_limits<long>::min()
returns the minimum representable value?
It would be nice if min() always returned the minimum (finite value) and a
separate member, min_pos_value(), was provided.

Thank you,
Elron


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Elron A. Yellin<elron@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>Why does numeric_limits<float>::min() return the minimum, positive,
>non-zero (normalized) representable value while numeric_limits<long>::min()
>returns the minimum representable value?
>It would be nice if min() always returned the minimum (finite value) and a
>separate member, min_pos_value(), was provided.

This may not be a good enough answer, but ...

The ISO Standard for Language Independent Arithmetic specifies
it that way, as does the C header <limits.h>.  Maybe it was wrong
to propagate the error, if error it was, but nobody who worked on
the <limits> header felt confident to second-guess the experts in
this area.

--
Nathan Myers
ncm@nospam.cantrip.org  http://www.cantrip.org/



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