[issue9980] str(float) failure

[Mark Dickinson]

Mark Dickinson <dickinsm at gmail.com> added the comment:

> I would feel more comfortable if the correct FPU state is guaranteed.

I agree, in principle.  In practice there are some thorny issues to deal with, and things to think about:

(1) The method for getting and setting the FPU precision varies from platform to platform

(2) Most modern x86 processors have *two* FPUs that might be used (the SSE unit, and the x87), each with their own control words.

(3) Depending on the platform and compiler flags, a Python executable / shared library might be using the x87 instructions, the SSE2 instructions, or a mixture of both.

(4) We need to bear in mind that an executable created on a modern 32-bit Linux machine (with SSE2) might still need to run on older machines that don't have SSE2.

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