number printing problems in 5.9.3.99rc2 xmaxima on windows/GCL

1. I assume it is necessary to compile because the subroutines involved tend
to filter out division by zero and signal an error, instead of producing 
a NaN.
Open compiling allows the production of exceptional objects.

2. GCL, with this flag set to t, does allow something to be printed, but 
it is
kind of ugly and random.
Thus  1..#INF00e+000E+2280856  for an infinity
and  -1..#IND00e+000E+4518304  for a NaN
are two possible results.

I think it is better to intercept such exceptional operands on their way 
to getting printed, which requires only a small change in nformat.  We 
need a way to test for "exceptional-number",  and checking for inf (+ or 
-) and NaN.
Note that not all NaNs are bitwise the same. They just have a pecular 
exponent.
RJF





Stavros Macrakis wrote:

>I'm using the current released version of Maxima, which uses GCL 2.6.7
>(Windows).  Is there a GCL 2.6.8 built for Windows? Or a
>fire-and-forget way of getting it to build on Windows?  I simply don't
>have the time to play around with cvs etc.
>
>MAXIMA> (setq si::*print-nans* t)
>MAXIMA> (* 1.0e300 1.0e300)
>#<1.#INF00e+000>
>
>By the way, why did you compile your tests?
>
>           -s
>_______________________________________________
>Maxima mailing list
>Maxima at math.utexas.edu
>http://www.math.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/maxima
>  
>