A Versatile Precompiler for Nonstandard Arithmetics

Abstract

A highly portable Fortran precompiler which allows simphfied computation with nonstandard arithmetics is described The philosophy and design goals are bnefly presented, the major capabilities of the precompfler are described, and some apphcatmns are brmfly discussed. A summary is made of the experience with the precompiler. The precompfler is intended to furnish workmg programmers with a ready means of using nonstandard anthmetms

Fundamental Research in Applied Mathematics.

“…Moreover, much progress has been made in adapting the precompiler devised by F. Crary [17]. A big advantage of Crary's precompiler is that it was mostly written in Fortran.…”

Software for Interval Arithmetic: A Reasonably Portable Package

“…Although the subject of Fortran preprocessors is peripheral to the present topic, the use of a preprocessor is central to the design of the package. Details of the AUGMENT precompiler, on which this package depends, can be found in Crary [4]; Knowlton [9,10] also discusses the concept of precompilers and illustrates his discussion with a supporting package for interval arithmetic, although his precompiler does not seem to be as versatile as Crary's and his supporting package does not appear to be as extensive as the present one.…”

“…In real arithmetic, for example, x x x = x 2, but this does not hold for intervals: if X = [-2, 2], then X × X = {x×y]x ~ X, y ~ X} -- [-4, 4], while X 2 =-{x21x E X} = (0, 4). In cases such as this, it is comparatively easy to eliminate dependency, but in most cases it is not.…”

The AUGMENT precompiler as a tool for the development of special purpose arithmetic packages

“…In this paper , we describe one such tool --the AUGMENT precompiler for FORTRAN ( (7]) --and illustrate a design philosophy which has proved to be a reasonable application of the above criteria . Brie fly, we advocate the abstraction of the data type representations to the max imum possible degree in the design and implementation of software packages , and subsequent application Spo n sored by the United State a Army un de r Contract No.…”