Cycling 74 » Topic: 'int' object gives different results when receiving -inf between Mac OSX and Windows (maxm

'int' object gives different results when receiving -inf between Mac OSX and Windows (maxm

kawkhins — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:07:46 +0000

Hi,

I found a different behaviour between OSX and Win for int object.
When it receives float -infinity :
* on OSX, returns minimal integer : -2147483648
* on Win, returns zero

The behaviour on windows is buggy, float -infinity cannot be int zero.

-inf is obtained by sending zero to atodb. (So my custom vumeters, which
are working fine on OSX are broken on windows)

the problem is the same for int box number.

Best regards,
Chris

NB: see below simple patch to test this

#P window setfont “Sans Serif” 9.;
#P window linecount 1;
#P message 325 54 14 196617 1;
#P number 222 152 79 9 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P flonum 186 152 35 9 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P newex 204 130 27 196617 float;
#P message 306 54 14 196617 0;
#P newex 306 79 31 196617 atodb;
#P flonum 306 99 105 9 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P number 306 152 116 9 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P newex 306 133 27 196617 int;
#P connect 5 0 6 0;
#P connect 2 0 5 0;
#P connect 5 0 7 0;
#P connect 4 0 3 0;
#P connect 8 0 3 0;
#P connect 3 0 2 0;
#P connect 2 0 0 0;
#P connect 0 0 1 0;
#P window clipboard copycount 9;

Re: 'int' object gives different results when receiving -inf between Mac OSX and Windows (maxm

Peter Castine — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 11:35:50 +0000

The obvious suspect is differences in the implementation of IEEE 754
at either the level of mathlib.c, the OS, or the processor. So it’s
not as if it’s directly Max’ “fault”.

Still, Max’ developers seem to take pride in its cross-platform
compatibility, and it would be a Good Thing if the idiosyncrasies of
Mac vs. Windows implementations of IEEE 754 could be overcome.

I don’t know off-hand what IEEE 754 specifies when typecasting float
infinities to integer. I think min/max int values are the most
logical (i.e., what happens on Mac OS).

– Peter

Re: 'int' object gives different results when receiving -inf between Mac OSX and Windows (maxm

Roman Thilenius — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:19:15 +0000

i would not have known the details peter knows,
but would have guessed the same: calculation
in MAX uses mathlib, so it is a mathlib issue.

maybe it is not even a windows mathlib error,
we could call it a mac os bug as well, int isn t
exactly a number isn t it? we should not exspect
to display number box anything else than numbers,
it will not display pi, and we can not exspect it
to display inf. :)

it is a great service already than numbox displays
NaN where neccessary.

Re: 'int' object gives different results when receiving -inf between Mac OSX and Windows (maxm

kawkhins — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 21:11:03 +0000

number box is one part of the problem, but “int” object is another.
it should pass a value to outlet indicating an approximation of -inf.
for int, the best is -2147…..

I guess the problem is the same with +inf.

Chris

Re: 'int' object gives different results when receiving -inf between Mac OSX and Windows (maxm

Andrew Pask — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 22:12:34 +0000

Thanks Chris,

I think it should work the way it does on the Mac too.

-A

Re: 'int' object gives different results when receiving -inf between Mac OSX and Windows (maxm

kawkhins — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 08:17:02 +0000

> I think it should work the way it does on the Mac too.
yes, this is the main point, to have cross plateform compatible patchs.

Chris

Re: 'int' object gives different results when receiving -inf between Mac OSX and Windows (maxm

Andrew Pask — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 16:41:46 +0000

OK, here’s the deal.

This issue is processor specific. The feeling among the developers is that if the c language doesn’t take a stand on this then it may be for some good reason. The conversion should be treated as undefined and worked around with something like this

#P window setfont “Fixedwidth Serif” 12.;
#P flonum 141 222 44 12 0 0 0 141 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P toggle 177 300 15 0;
#P toggle 58 313 15 0;
#P window linecount 1;
#P newex 175 267 99 9240588 > 2147483648.;
#P newex 56 259 106 9240588 < -2147483648.;
#P message 118 151 36 9240588 -1.;
#P message 69 152 29 9240588 1.;
#P newex 82 192 36 9240588 / 0.;
#P connect 0 0 3 0;
#P connect 0 0 7 0;
#P connect 0 0 4 0;
#P connect 4 0 6 0;
#P connect 3 0 5 0;
#P connect 2 0 0 0;
#P connect 1 0 0 0;
#P window clipboard copycount 8;

Cheers

-A