[R] DLLs and the Floating Point Control Word.

[Steve Roberts]

Greetings. 

One for the developers I guess...  I am having problems in using a 
(non-recommended) Fortran compiler (Salford ftn95 Windoze), and 
the crashes do seem to be associated with the ftn95-dervived DLL 
changing the Floating Point Control Word. The compiler people are 
suggesting (and I paraphrase!) that if R minds what the FPCW is it 
is up to R to make sure it is the value it wants and R should 
check/reset on returning from the DLL call. There seems to me to 
be some logic in this position - if only to make life easier for those 
of us who don't really know what a FPCW is! Having to add 
unintelligable code to reset the FPCW at the end of each fortran 
routine is inelegant. It probably isn't as easy as it sounds  - I guess 
there are multi-platform issues? Is this a sensible suggestion to 
add to the wish list?

Keep up the good work

Steve.
  Dr Steve Roberts 
  steve.roberts at man.ac.uk

Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics,
CMMCH NHS Trust and University of Manchester Biostatistics Group,
0161 275 5192 / 0161 276 5785