Handling floating-point exceptions in numeric programs

• Authors: John R. Hauser
• Venue: ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS)
• Year: 1996

There are a number of schemes for handling arithmetic exceptions that can be used to improve the speed (or alternatively the reliability) of numeric code. Overflow and underflow are the most troublesome exceptions, and depending on the context in which the exception can occur, they may be addressed either: (1) through a “brute force” reevaluation with extended range, (2) by reevaluating using a technique known as scaling, (3) by substituting an infinity or zero, or (4) in the case of underflow, with gradual underflow. In the first two of these cases, the offending computation is simply reevaluated using a safer but slower method. The latter two cases are cheaper, more automated schemes that ideally are built in as options within the computer system. Other arithmetic exceptions can be handled with similar methods. These and some other techniques are examined with an eye toward determining the support programming languages and computer systems ought to provide for floating-point exception handling. It is argued that the cheapest short-term solution would be to give full support to most of the required (as opposed to recommended) special features of the IEC/IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic. An essential part of this support would include standardized access from high-level languages to the exception flags defined by the standard. Some possibilities outside the IEEE Standard are also considered, and a few thought on possible better-structured support within programming languages are discussed.