Fwd: JDK 9 RFR of JDK-8030942: Explicitly state floating-point summation requirements on non-finite inputs

[Joe Darcy]

Hello Georgiy,

On 07/22/2014 08:49 AM, Georgiy Rakov wrote:
> Hello Joe,
>
> following assertion seems to me too loose:
>
>      * Because of the unspecified order of operations and the
>      * possibility of using differing summation schemes, the output of
>      * this method may vary on the same input values.
>
> as I see it this assertion imposes no constraints on how the sum can 
> be varied. Strictly speaking, I'm afraid from conformance point of 
> view it can cause the entire method to become untestable.
>
> Thank you,
> Georgiy.
>

I would argue the statement above is just a clarification of the 
existing (non) specification of how the method can operate.

Ideally, the sum method would state an error bound for its operation. 
There are bugs in this subcomponent mentioning adding such a bound, 
which may be done later in JDK 9.

-Joe