math.exp underflow (was: exp behaviour: is it a bug ?)

[Konrad Hinsen]

Charles G Waldman <cgw at fnal.gov> writes:

> Konrad Hinsen <hinsen at cnrs-orleans.fr> writes:
> 
> > I'd prefer a portable solution to one that reflects the system math
> > library. I had the same problem under AIX, and I solved it by patching
> > Python. I just wonder if someone has the patience to work out a
> > patch that would create the same behaviour independently of what the
> > math library does. Not me, unfortunately...
> 
> What do you think the consistent behavior should be?  Should
> math.exp(-10000) return 0, or raise some exception?

I have yet to encounter a case where returning 0 would cause a problem,
so I'd vote for that solution. But raising an execption systematically
would be fine as well, one could then catch it and return 0 if that's
what is wanted.
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