RFR: 4511638: Double.toString(double) sometimes produces incorrect results [v2]

[Raffaello Giulietti]

On Fri, 16 Apr 2021 11:30:32 GMT, Raffaello Giulietti <github.com+70726043+rgiulietti at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> Hello,
>> 
>> here's a PR for a patch submitted on March 2020 [1](https://cr.openjdk.java.net/~bpb/4511638/webrev.04/) when Mercurial was a thing.
>> 
>> The patch has been edited to adhere to OpenJDK code conventions about multi-line (block) comments. Nothing in the code proper has changed, except for the addition of redundant but clarifying parentheses in some expressions.
>> 
>> 
>> Greetings
>> Raffaello
>
> Raffaello Giulietti has updated the pull request incrementally with one additional commit since the last revision:
> 
>   4511638: Double.toString(double) sometimes produces incorrect results

Thanks for helping me keeping this PR alive.

I was pondering whether to propose adding a launch-time option on the command line to choose between the current and the proposed implementation for some time, so to help the community gaining confidence in the new algorithm and still have the current one as a fallback, just in case. (AFAIU, a launch-time option can be constant folded by the JIT compiler to help it eliminate dead code, right?)

On the one hand, this adds complexity. On the other hand, it could help revive this dormant PR.

What do you think? Would this be a viable option?

Greetings
Raffaello

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PR: https://git.openjdk.java.net/jdk/pull/3402