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1=head1 LIBECB - e-C-Builtins
2
1=head1 LIBECB 3=head2 ABOUT LIBECB
2 4
3You suck, we don't(tm) 5Libecb is currently a simple header file that doesn't require any
6configuration to use or include in your project.
7
8It's part of the e-suite of libraries, other members of which include
9libev and libeio.
10
11Its homepage can be found here:
12
13 http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/libecb
14
15It mainly provides a number of wrappers around GCC built-ins, together
16with replacement functions for other compilers. In addition to this,
17it provides a number of other lowlevel C utilities, such as endianness
18detection, byte swapping or bit rotations.
19
20Or in other words, things that should be built into any standard C system,
21but aren't, implemented as efficient as possible with GCC, and still
22correct with other compilers.
23
24More might come.
4 25
5=head2 ABOUT THE HEADER 26=head2 ABOUT THE HEADER
6 27
7- how to include it 28At the moment, all you have to do is copy F<ecb.h> somewhere where your
8- it includes inttypes.h 29compiler can find it and include it:
9- no .a
10- whats a bool
11 30
12=head2 GCC ATTRIBUTES 31 #include <ecb.h>
13 32
14blabla where to put, what others 33The header should work fine for both C and C++ compilation, and gives you
34all of F<inttypes.h> in addition to the ECB symbols.
35
36There are currently no object files to link to - future versions might
37come with an (optional) object code library to link against, to reduce
38code size or gain access to additional features.
39
40It also currently includes everything from F<inttypes.h>.
41
42=head2 ABOUT THIS MANUAL / CONVENTIONS
43
44This manual mainly describes each (public) function available after
45including the F<ecb.h> header. The header might define other symbols than
46these, but these are not part of the public API, and not supported in any
47way.
48
49When the manual mentions a "function" then this could be defined either as
50as inline function, a macro, or an external symbol.
51
52When functions use a concrete standard type, such as C<int> or
53C<uint32_t>, then the corresponding function works only with that type. If
54only a generic name is used (C<expr>, C<cond>, C<value> and so on), then
55the corresponding function relies on C to implement the correct types, and
56is usually implemented as a macro. Specifically, a "bool" in this manual
57refers to any kind of boolean value, not a specific type.
58
59=head2 TYPES / TYPE SUPPORT
60
61ecb.h makes sure that the following types are defined (in the expected way):
62
63 int8_t uint8_t int16_t uint16_t
64 int32_t uint32_t int64_t uint64_t
65 intptr_t uintptr_t
66
67The macro C<ECB_PTRSIZE> is defined to the size of a pointer on this
68platform (currently C<4> or C<8>) and can be used in preprocessor
69expressions.
70
71For C<ptrdiff_t> and C<size_t> use C<stddef.h>.
72
73=head2 LANGUAGE/ENVIRONMENT/COMPILER VERSIONS
74
75All the following symbols expand to an expression that can be tested in
76preprocessor instructions as well as treated as a boolean (use C<!!> to
77ensure it's either C<0> or C<1> if you need that).
15 78
16=over 4 79=over 4
17 80
18=item ecb_attribute ((attrs...)) 81=item ECB_C
19 82
20A simple wrapper that expands to C<__attribute__((attrs))> on GCC, and 83True if the implementation defines the C<__STDC__> macro to a true value,
21to nothing on other compilers, so the effect is that only GCC sees these. 84while not claiming to be C++.
85
86=item ECB_C99
87
88True if the implementation claims to be compliant to C99 (ISO/IEC
899899:1999) or any later version, while not claiming to be C++.
90
91Note that later versions (ECB_C11) remove core features again (for
92example, variable length arrays).
93
94=item ECB_C11
95
96True if the implementation claims to be compliant to C11 (ISO/IEC
979899:2011) or any later version, while not claiming to be C++.
98
99=item ECB_CPP
100
101True if the implementation defines the C<__cplusplus__> macro to a true
102value, which is typically true for C++ compilers.
103
104=item ECB_CPP11
105
106True if the implementation claims to be compliant to ISO/IEC 14882:2011
107(C++11) or any later version.
108
109=item ECB_GCC_VERSION (major, minor)
110
111Expands to a true value (suitable for testing in by the preprocessor)
112if the compiler used is GNU C and the version is the given version, or
113higher.
114
115This macro tries to return false on compilers that claim to be GCC
116compatible but aren't.
117
118=item ECB_EXTERN_C
119
120Expands to C<extern "C"> in C++, and a simple C<extern> in C.
121
122This can be used to declare a single external C function:
123
124 ECB_EXTERN_C int printf (const char *format, ...);
125
126=item ECB_EXTERN_C_BEG / ECB_EXTERN_C_END
127
128These two macros can be used to wrap multiple C<extern "C"> definitions -
129they expand to nothing in C.
130
131They are most useful in header files:
132
133 ECB_EXTERN_C_BEG
134
135 int mycfun1 (int x);
136 int mycfun2 (int x);
137
138 ECB_EXTERN_C_END
139
140=item ECB_STDFP
141
142If this evaluates to a true value (suitable for testing in by the
143preprocessor), then C<float> and C<double> use IEEE 754 single/binary32
144and double/binary64 representations internally I<and> the endianness of
145both types match the endianness of C<uint32_t> and C<uint64_t>.
146
147This means you can just copy the bits of a C<float> (or C<double>) to an
148C<uint32_t> (or C<uint64_t>) and get the raw IEEE 754 bit representation
149without having to think about format or endianness.
150
151This is true for basically all modern platforms, although F<ecb.h> might
152not be able to deduce this correctly everywhere and might err on the safe
153side.
154
155=item ECB_AMD64, ECB_AMD64_X32
156
157These two macros are defined to C<1> on the x86_64/amd64 ABI and the X32
158ABI, respectively, and undefined elsewhere.
159
160The designers of the new X32 ABI for some inexplicable reason decided to
161make it look exactly like amd64, even though it's completely incompatible
162to that ABI, breaking about every piece of software that assumed that
163C<__x86_64> stands for, well, the x86-64 ABI, making these macros
164necessary.
165
166=back
167
168=head2 MACRO TRICKERY
169
170=over 4
171
172=item ECB_CONCAT (a, b)
173
174Expands any macros in C<a> and C<b>, then concatenates the result to form
175a single token. This is mainly useful to form identifiers from components,
176e.g.:
177
178 #define S1 str
179 #define S2 cpy
180
181 ECB_CONCAT (S1, S2)(dst, src); // == strcpy (dst, src);
182
183=item ECB_STRINGIFY (arg)
184
185Expands any macros in C<arg> and returns the stringified version of
186it. This is mainly useful to get the contents of a macro in string form,
187e.g.:
188
189 #define SQL_LIMIT 100
190 sql_exec ("select * from table limit " ECB_STRINGIFY (SQL_LIMIT));
191
192=back
193
194=head2 ATTRIBUTES
195
196A major part of libecb deals with additional attributes that can be
197assigned to functions, variables and sometimes even types - much like
198C<const> or C<volatile> in C. They are implemented using either GCC
199attributes or other compiler/language specific features. Attributes
200declarations must be put before the whole declaration:
201
202 ecb_const int mysqrt (int a);
203 ecb_unused int i;
204
205=over 4
22 206
23=item ecb_unused 207=item ecb_unused
24 208
25Marks a function or a variable as "unused", which simply suppresses a 209Marks a function or a variable as "unused", which simply suppresses a
26warning by GCC when it detects it as unused. This is useful when you e.g. 210warning by GCC when it detects it as unused. This is useful when you e.g.
27declare a variable but do not always use it: 211declare a variable but do not always use it:
28 212
213 {
214 ecb_unused int var;
215
216 #ifdef SOMECONDITION
217 var = ...;
218 return var;
219 #else
220 return 0;
221 #endif
222 }
223
224=item ecb_deprecated
225
226Similar to C<ecb_unused>, but marks a function, variable or type as
227deprecated. This makes some compilers warn when the type is used.
228
229=item ecb_deprecated_message (message)
230
231Same as C<ecb_deprecated>, but if possible, supply a diagnostic that is
232used instead of a generic depreciation message when the object is being
233used.
234
235=item ecb_inline
236
237Expands either to C<static inline> or to just C<static>, if inline
238isn't supported. It should be used to declare functions that should be
239inlined, for code size or speed reasons.
240
241Example: inline this function, it surely will reduce codesize.
242
243 ecb_inline int
244 negmul (int a, int b)
29 { 245 {
30 int var ecb_unused; 246 return - (a * b);
31
32 #ifdef SOMECONDITION
33 var = ...;
34 return var;
35 #else
36 return 0;
37 #endif
38 } 247 }
39 248
40=item ecb_noinline 249=item ecb_noinline
41 250
42Prevent a function from being inlined - it might be optimsied away, but 251Prevent a function from being inlined - it might be optimised away, but
43not inlined into other functions. This is useful if you know your function 252not inlined into other functions. This is useful if you know your function
44is rarely called and large enough for inlining not to be helpful. 253is rarely called and large enough for inlining not to be helpful.
45 254
46=item ecb_noreturn 255=item ecb_noreturn
47 256
257Marks a function as "not returning, ever". Some typical functions that
258don't return are C<exit> or C<abort> (which really works hard to not
259return), and now you can make your own:
260
261 ecb_noreturn void
262 my_abort (const char *errline)
263 {
264 puts (errline);
265 abort ();
266 }
267
268In this case, the compiler would probably be smart enough to deduce it on
269its own, so this is mainly useful for declarations.
270
271=item ecb_restrict
272
273Expands to the C<restrict> keyword or equivalent on compilers that support
274them, and to nothing on others. Must be specified on a pointer type or
275an array index to indicate that the memory doesn't alias with any other
276restricted pointer in the same scope.
277
278Example: multiply a vector, and allow the compiler to parallelise the
279loop, because it knows it doesn't overwrite input values.
280
281 void
282 multiply (ecb_restrict float *src,
283 ecb_restrict float *dst,
284 int len, float factor)
285 {
286 int i;
287
288 for (i = 0; i < len; ++i)
289 dst [i] = src [i] * factor;
290 }
291
48=item ecb_const 292=item ecb_const
49 293
294Declares that the function only depends on the values of its arguments,
295much like a mathematical function. It specifically does not read or write
296any memory any arguments might point to, global variables, or call any
297non-const functions. It also must not have any side effects.
298
299Such a function can be optimised much more aggressively by the compiler -
300for example, multiple calls with the same arguments can be optimised into
301a single call, which wouldn't be possible if the compiler would have to
302expect any side effects.
303
304It is best suited for functions in the sense of mathematical functions,
305such as a function returning the square root of its input argument.
306
307Not suited would be a function that calculates the hash of some memory
308area you pass in, prints some messages or looks at a global variable to
309decide on rounding.
310
311See C<ecb_pure> for a slightly less restrictive class of functions.
312
50=item ecb_pure 313=item ecb_pure
51 314
315Similar to C<ecb_const>, declares a function that has no side
316effects. Unlike C<ecb_const>, the function is allowed to examine global
317variables and any other memory areas (such as the ones passed to it via
318pointers).
319
320While these functions cannot be optimised as aggressively as C<ecb_const>
321functions, they can still be optimised away in many occasions, and the
322compiler has more freedom in moving calls to them around.
323
324Typical examples for such functions would be C<strlen> or C<memcmp>. A
325function that calculates the MD5 sum of some input and updates some MD5
326state passed as argument would I<NOT> be pure, however, as it would modify
327some memory area that is not the return value.
328
52=item ecb_hot 329=item ecb_hot
53 330
331This declares a function as "hot" with regards to the cache - the function
332is used so often, that it is very beneficial to keep it in the cache if
333possible.
334
335The compiler reacts by trying to place hot functions near to each other in
336memory.
337
338Whether a function is hot or not often depends on the whole program,
339and less on the function itself. C<ecb_cold> is likely more useful in
340practise.
341
54=item ecb_cold 342=item ecb_cold
55 343
344The opposite of C<ecb_hot> - declares a function as "cold" with regards to
345the cache, or in other words, this function is not called often, or not at
346speed-critical times, and keeping it in the cache might be a waste of said
347cache.
348
349In addition to placing cold functions together (or at least away from hot
350functions), this knowledge can be used in other ways, for example, the
351function will be optimised for size, as opposed to speed, and codepaths
352leading to calls to those functions can automatically be marked as if
353C<ecb_expect_false> had been used to reach them.
354
355Good examples for such functions would be error reporting functions, or
356functions only called in exceptional or rare cases.
357
56=item ecb_artificial 358=item ecb_artificial
57 359
360Declares the function as "artificial", in this case meaning that this
361function is not really meant to be a function, but more like an accessor
362- many methods in C++ classes are mere accessor functions, and having a
363crash reported in such a method, or single-stepping through them, is not
364usually so helpful, especially when it's inlined to just a few instructions.
365
366Marking them as artificial will instruct the debugger about just this,
367leading to happier debugging and thus happier lives.
368
369Example: in some kind of smart-pointer class, mark the pointer accessor as
370artificial, so that the whole class acts more like a pointer and less like
371some C++ abstraction monster.
372
373 template<typename T>
374 struct my_smart_ptr
375 {
376 T *value;
377
378 ecb_artificial
379 operator T *()
380 {
381 return value;
382 }
383 };
384
58=back 385=back
59 386
60=head2 OPTIMISATION HINTS 387=head2 OPTIMISATION HINTS
61 388
62=over 4 389=over 4
63 390
64=item bool ecb_is_constant(expr) 391=item bool ecb_is_constant (expr)
65 392
66Returns true iff the expression can be deduced to be a compile-time 393Returns true iff the expression can be deduced to be a compile-time
67constant, and false otherwise. 394constant, and false otherwise.
68 395
69For example, when you have a C<rndm16> function that returns a 16 bit 396For example, when you have a C<rndm16> function that returns a 16 bit
87 return is_constant (n) && !(n & (n - 1)) 414 return is_constant (n) && !(n & (n - 1))
88 ? rndm16 () & (num - 1) 415 ? rndm16 () & (num - 1)
89 : (n * (uint32_t)rndm16 ()) >> 16; 416 : (n * (uint32_t)rndm16 ()) >> 16;
90 } 417 }
91 418
92=item bool ecb_expect(expr,value) 419=item ecb_expect (expr, value)
93 420
94=item bool ecb_unlikely(bool) 421Evaluates C<expr> and returns it. In addition, it tells the compiler that
422the C<expr> evaluates to C<value> a lot, which can be used for static
423branch optimisations.
95 424
96=item bool ecb_likely(bool) 425Usually, you want to use the more intuitive C<ecb_expect_true> and
426C<ecb_expect_false> functions instead.
97 427
428=item bool ecb_expect_true (cond)
429
430=item bool ecb_expect_false (cond)
431
432These two functions expect a expression that is true or false and return
433C<1> or C<0>, respectively, so when used in the condition of an C<if> or
434other conditional statement, it will not change the program:
435
436 /* these two do the same thing */
437 if (some_condition) ...;
438 if (ecb_expect_true (some_condition)) ...;
439
440However, by using C<ecb_expect_true>, you tell the compiler that the
441condition is likely to be true (and for C<ecb_expect_false>, that it is
442unlikely to be true).
443
444For example, when you check for a null pointer and expect this to be a
445rare, exceptional, case, then use C<ecb_expect_false>:
446
447 void my_free (void *ptr)
448 {
449 if (ecb_expect_false (ptr == 0))
450 return;
451 }
452
453Consequent use of these functions to mark away exceptional cases or to
454tell the compiler what the hot path through a function is can increase
455performance considerably.
456
457You might know these functions under the name C<likely> and C<unlikely>
458- while these are common aliases, we find that the expect name is easier
459to understand when quickly skimming code. If you wish, you can use
460C<ecb_likely> instead of C<ecb_expect_true> and C<ecb_unlikely> instead of
461C<ecb_expect_false> - these are simply aliases.
462
463A very good example is in a function that reserves more space for some
464memory block (for example, inside an implementation of a string stream) -
465each time something is added, you have to check for a buffer overrun, but
466you expect that most checks will turn out to be false:
467
468 /* make sure we have "size" extra room in our buffer */
469 ecb_inline void
470 reserve (int size)
471 {
472 if (ecb_expect_false (current + size > end))
473 real_reserve_method (size); /* presumably noinline */
474 }
475
98=item bool ecb_assume(cond) 476=item ecb_assume (cond)
99 477
478Try to tell the compiler that some condition is true, even if it's not
479obvious.
480
481This can be used to teach the compiler about invariants or other
482conditions that might improve code generation, but which are impossible to
483deduce form the code itself.
484
485For example, the example reservation function from the C<ecb_expect_false>
486description could be written thus (only C<ecb_assume> was added):
487
488 ecb_inline void
489 reserve (int size)
490 {
491 if (ecb_expect_false (current + size > end))
492 real_reserve_method (size); /* presumably noinline */
493
494 ecb_assume (current + size <= end);
495 }
496
497If you then call this function twice, like this:
498
499 reserve (10);
500 reserve (1);
501
502Then the compiler I<might> be able to optimise out the second call
503completely, as it knows that C<< current + 1 > end >> is false and the
504call will never be executed.
505
100=item bool ecb_unreachable() 506=item ecb_unreachable ()
101 507
508This function does nothing itself, except tell the compiler that it will
509never be executed. Apart from suppressing a warning in some cases, this
510function can be used to implement C<ecb_assume> or similar functions.
511
102=item bool ecb_prefetch(addr,rw,locality) 512=item ecb_prefetch (addr, rw, locality)
513
514Tells the compiler to try to prefetch memory at the given C<addr>ess
515for either reading (C<rw> = 0) or writing (C<rw> = 1). A C<locality> of
516C<0> means that there will only be one access later, C<3> means that
517the data will likely be accessed very often, and values in between mean
518something... in between. The memory pointed to by the address does not
519need to be accessible (it could be a null pointer for example), but C<rw>
520and C<locality> must be compile-time constants.
521
522An obvious way to use this is to prefetch some data far away, in a big
523array you loop over. This prefetches memory some 128 array elements later,
524in the hope that it will be ready when the CPU arrives at that location.
525
526 int sum = 0;
527
528 for (i = 0; i < N; ++i)
529 {
530 sum += arr [i]
531 ecb_prefetch (arr + i + 128, 0, 0);
532 }
533
534It's hard to predict how far to prefetch, and most CPUs that can prefetch
535are often good enough to predict this kind of behaviour themselves. It
536gets more interesting with linked lists, especially when you do some fair
537processing on each list element:
538
539 for (node *n = start; n; n = n->next)
540 {
541 ecb_prefetch (n->next, 0, 0);
542 ... do medium amount of work with *n
543 }
544
545After processing the node, (part of) the next node might already be in
546cache.
103 547
104=back 548=back
105 549
106=head2 BIT FIDDLING / BITSTUFFS 550=head2 BIT FIDDLING / BIT WIZARDRY
107 551
108=over 4 552=over 4
109 553
110=item bool ecb_big_endian () 554=item bool ecb_big_endian ()
111 555
112=item bool ecb_little_endian () 556=item bool ecb_little_endian ()
113 557
558These two functions return true if the byte order is big endian
559(most-significant byte first) or little endian (least-significant byte
560first) respectively.
561
562On systems that are neither, their return values are unspecified.
563
114=item int ecb_ctz32 (uint32_t x) 564=item int ecb_ctz32 (uint32_t x)
115 565
566=item int ecb_ctz64 (uint64_t x)
567
568Returns the index of the least significant bit set in C<x> (or
569equivalently the number of bits set to 0 before the least significant bit
570set), starting from 0. If C<x> is 0 the result is undefined.
571
572For smaller types than C<uint32_t> you can safely use C<ecb_ctz32>.
573
574For example:
575
576 ecb_ctz32 (3) = 0
577 ecb_ctz32 (6) = 1
578
579=item bool ecb_is_pot32 (uint32_t x)
580
581=item bool ecb_is_pot64 (uint32_t x)
582
583Return true iff C<x> is a power of two or C<x == 0>.
584
585For smaller types then C<uint32_t> you can safely use C<ecb_is_pot32>.
586
587=item int ecb_ld32 (uint32_t x)
588
589=item int ecb_ld64 (uint64_t x)
590
591Returns the index of the most significant bit set in C<x>, or the number
592of digits the number requires in binary (so that C<< 2**ld <= x <
5932**(ld+1) >>). If C<x> is 0 the result is undefined. A common use case is
594to compute the integer binary logarithm, i.e. C<floor (log2 (n))>, for
595example to see how many bits a certain number requires to be encoded.
596
597This function is similar to the "count leading zero bits" function, except
598that that one returns how many zero bits are "in front" of the number (in
599the given data type), while C<ecb_ld> returns how many bits the number
600itself requires.
601
602For smaller types than C<uint32_t> you can safely use C<ecb_ld32>.
603
116=item int ecb_popcount32 (uint32_t x) 604=item int ecb_popcount32 (uint32_t x)
117 605
606=item int ecb_popcount64 (uint64_t x)
607
608Returns the number of bits set to 1 in C<x>.
609
610For smaller types than C<uint32_t> you can safely use C<ecb_popcount32>.
611
612For example:
613
614 ecb_popcount32 (7) = 3
615 ecb_popcount32 (255) = 8
616
617=item uint8_t ecb_bitrev8 (uint8_t x)
618
619=item uint16_t ecb_bitrev16 (uint16_t x)
620
621=item uint32_t ecb_bitrev32 (uint32_t x)
622
623Reverses the bits in x, i.e. the MSB becomes the LSB, MSB-1 becomes LSB+1
624and so on.
625
626Example:
627
628 ecb_bitrev8 (0xa7) = 0xea
629 ecb_bitrev32 (0xffcc4411) = 0x882233ff
630
631=item uint32_t ecb_bswap16 (uint32_t x)
632
118=item uint32_t ecb_bswap32 (uint32_t x) 633=item uint32_t ecb_bswap32 (uint32_t x)
119 634
120=item uint32_t ecb_bswap16 (uint32_t x) 635=item uint64_t ecb_bswap64 (uint64_t x)
636
637These functions return the value of the 16-bit (32-bit, 64-bit) value
638C<x> after reversing the order of bytes (0x11223344 becomes 0x44332211 in
639C<ecb_bswap32>).
640
641=item uint8_t ecb_rotl8 (uint8_t x, unsigned int count)
642
643=item uint16_t ecb_rotl16 (uint16_t x, unsigned int count)
644
645=item uint32_t ecb_rotl32 (uint32_t x, unsigned int count)
646
647=item uint64_t ecb_rotl64 (uint64_t x, unsigned int count)
648
649=item uint8_t ecb_rotr8 (uint8_t x, unsigned int count)
650
651=item uint16_t ecb_rotr16 (uint16_t x, unsigned int count)
121 652
122=item uint32_t ecb_rotr32 (uint32_t x, unsigned int count) 653=item uint32_t ecb_rotr32 (uint32_t x, unsigned int count)
123 654
124=item uint32_t ecb_rotl32 (uint32_t x, unsigned int count) 655=item uint64_t ecb_rotr64 (uint64_t x, unsigned int count)
656
657These two families of functions return the value of C<x> after rotating
658all the bits by C<count> positions to the right (C<ecb_rotr>) or left
659(C<ecb_rotl>).
660
661Current GCC versions understand these functions and usually compile them
662to "optimal" code (e.g. a single C<rol> or a combination of C<shld> on
663x86).
125 664
126=back 665=back
127 666
667=head2 FLOATING POINT FIDDLING
668
669=over 4
670
671=item ECB_INFINITY
672
673Evaluates to positive infinity if supported by the platform, otherwise to
674a truly huge number.
675
676=item ECB_NON
677
678Evaluates to a quiet NAN if supported by the platform, otherwise to
679C<ECB_INFINITY>.
680
681=item float ecb_ldexpf (float x, int exp)
682
683Same as C<ldexpf>, but always available.
684
685=item uint32_t ecb_float_to_binary32 (float x) [-UECB_NO_LIBM]
686
687=item uint64_t ecb_double_to_binary64 (double x) [-UECB_NO_LIBM]
688
689These functions each take an argument in the native C<float> or C<double>
690type and return the IEEE 754 bit representation of it.
691
692The bit representation is just as IEEE 754 defines it, i.e. the sign bit
693will be the most significant bit, followed by exponent and mantissa.
694
695This function should work even when the native floating point format isn't
696IEEE compliant, of course at a speed and code size penalty, and of course
697also within reasonable limits (it tries to convert NaNs, infinities and
698denormals, but will likely convert negative zero to positive zero).
699
700On all modern platforms (where C<ECB_STDFP> is true), the compiler should
701be able to optimise away this function completely.
702
703These functions can be helpful when serialising floats to the network - you
704can serialise the return value like a normal uint32_t/uint64_t.
705
706Another use for these functions is to manipulate floating point values
707directly.
708
709Silly example: toggle the sign bit of a float.
710
711 /* On gcc-4.7 on amd64, */
712 /* this results in a single add instruction to toggle the bit, and 4 extra */
713 /* instructions to move the float value to an integer register and back. */
714
715 x = ecb_binary32_to_float (ecb_float_to_binary32 (x) ^ 0x80000000U)
716
717=item float ecb_binary16_to_float (uint16_t x) [-UECB_NO_LIBM]
718
719=item float ecb_binary32_to_float (uint32_t x) [-UECB_NO_LIBM]
720
721=item double ecb_binary32_to_double (uint64_t x) [-UECB_NO_LIBM]
722
723The reverse operation of the previous function - takes the bit
724representation of an IEEE binary16, binary32 or binary64 number and
725converts it to the native C<float> or C<double> format.
726
727This function should work even when the native floating point format isn't
728IEEE compliant, of course at a speed and code size penalty, and of course
729also within reasonable limits (it tries to convert normals and denormals,
730and might be lucky for infinities, and with extraordinary luck, also for
731negative zero).
732
733On all modern platforms (where C<ECB_STDFP> is true), the compiler should
734be able to optimise away this function completely.
735
736=back
737
128=head2 ARITHMETIC 738=head2 ARITHMETIC
129 739
130=over 4 740=over 4
131 741
132=item x = ecb_mod (m, n) [MACRO] 742=item x = ecb_mod (m, n)
743
744Returns C<m> modulo C<n>, which is the same as the positive remainder
745of the division operation between C<m> and C<n>, using floored
746division. Unlike the C remainder operator C<%>, this function ensures that
747the return value is always positive and that the two numbers I<m> and
748I<m' = m + i * n> result in the same value modulo I<n> - in other words,
749C<ecb_mod> implements the mathematical modulo operation, which is missing
750in the language.
751
752C<n> must be strictly positive (i.e. C<< >= 1 >>), while C<m> must be
753negatable, that is, both C<m> and C<-m> must be representable in its
754type (this typically excludes the minimum signed integer value, the same
755limitation as for C</> and C<%> in C).
756
757Current GCC versions compile this into an efficient branchless sequence on
758almost all CPUs.
759
760For example, when you want to rotate forward through the members of an
761array for increasing C<m> (which might be negative), then you should use
762C<ecb_mod>, as the C<%> operator might give either negative results, or
763change direction for negative values:
764
765 for (m = -100; m <= 100; ++m)
766 int elem = myarray [ecb_mod (m, ecb_array_length (myarray))];
767
768=item x = ecb_div_rd (val, div)
769
770=item x = ecb_div_ru (val, div)
771
772Returns C<val> divided by C<div> rounded down or up, respectively.
773C<val> and C<div> must have integer types and C<div> must be strictly
774positive. Note that these functions are implemented with macros in C
775and with function templates in C++.
133 776
134=back 777=back
135 778
136=head2 UTILITY 779=head2 UTILITY
137 780
138=over 4 781=over 4
139 782
140=item ecb_array_length (name) [MACRO] 783=item element_count = ecb_array_length (name)
784
785Returns the number of elements in the array C<name>. For example:
786
787 int primes[] = { 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 };
788 int sum = 0;
789
790 for (i = 0; i < ecb_array_length (primes); i++)
791 sum += primes [i];
141 792
142=back 793=back
143 794
795=head2 SYMBOLS GOVERNING COMPILATION OF ECB.H ITSELF
144 796
797These symbols need to be defined before including F<ecb.h> the first time.
798
799=over 4
800
801=item ECB_NO_THREADS
802
803If F<ecb.h> is never used from multiple threads, then this symbol can
804be defined, in which case memory fences (and similar constructs) are
805completely removed, leading to more efficient code and fewer dependencies.
806
807Setting this symbol to a true value implies C<ECB_NO_SMP>.
808
809=item ECB_NO_SMP
810
811The weaker version of C<ECB_NO_THREADS> - if F<ecb.h> is used from
812multiple threads, but never concurrently (e.g. if the system the program
813runs on has only a single CPU with a single core, no hyperthreading and so
814on), then this symbol can be defined, leading to more efficient code and
815fewer dependencies.
816
817=item ECB_NO_LIBM
818
819When defined to C<1>, do not export any functions that might introduce
820dependencies on the math library (usually called F<-lm>) - these are
821marked with [-UECB_NO_LIBM].
822
823=back
824
825

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