[gmpi] Re: Reqs final draft
- From: Paul Davis <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: gmpi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 21:14:45 -0500
>doesn't it make sense that an exception due to the math unit is the LAST
>thing you'd want in your mixing thread? Those can crash an app real bad.
>
>Catching exceptions is great.. when you debug your code.
i am really not sure what happens on Windows, but catching FPU
exceptions on any POSIX system is simplicity itself (barring the usual
complications of mixing threads with POSIX signals).
the fact that an exception will be generated does not mean that an
application will crash, quite the opposite: its an opportunity for the
host to discover a buggy plugin and deal with it appropriately.
>Note that the FPU precision can be critical in some cases. There are fast
>tricks to truncate floats, and if the precision is not what you expect, they
>will just not work. But ok, a plugin that uses them will probably set the
>precision itself for safety.
this is an artifact of the terrible float/int design of the x86. not
that this doesn't mean its an important issue, but its not universal.
anyway, the point is that so far, there are 2 choices mentioned:
a) plugins may not change FPU state in any way
b) plugins may change FPU state but must restore it if they do
if we require (a), then we have to specify what the pre-existing state
will be. given GMPI's intended cross-platform targetting, this is
something that would have to be rolled into our "profiles" idea, and
could lead to some nasty complications for plugin developers.
--p
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