Headers

Several headers define the interfaces to the CommonPoint numerical facilities. The headers fall into four groups:

The CommonPoint headers support all the functionality of the proposed Floating-point C Extensions and the IEEE floating-point standards, presented in the style of the CommonPoint application system:

Numerics.h defines the global floating-point functions.
FPEnvironment.h defines the classes dealing with the environment.
The FPCE headers also support the full FPCE and IEEE functionality, but in the C style of FPCE:
- fp.h defines the global floating-point functions.
- fenv.h defines global functions for dealing with the environment.
The historical Standard C header supports an earlier feature set superceded by FPCE:
- math.h defines the global floating-point functions available in the historical Standard C library.
Three headers support specialized services that are independent of the more general headers above:
- PrimitiveTypes.h defines the class TDoubleLong, an integer type twice the width of long, and other, nonnumerical types.

Use the CommonPoint headers for best results across all CommonPoint platforms. They provide the most mathematical functionality and object-oriented access to the floating-point environment. Use the FPCE headers along with the CommonPoint headers to enhance portability across other systems, too. Use the Standard C header with the CommonPoint headers only when strict compliance to earlier conventions is important. Chapter 11 discusses portability aspects of the headers further.

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