[Numpy-discussion] RE: Python 2.2 seriously crippled for numerical computation?

[Fernando Pérez]

Fernando Pereira wrote:

> It's not Python 2.2 itself:
> 
> % python
> Python 2.2 (#1, Feb 10 2002, 13:29:43)
> [GCC 2.95.2 19991024 (release)] on darwin
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>> 1e-200**2
> 0.0

Ok, some more details to try and find who the culprit is:

[~]> uname -a
Linux maqroll 2.4.8-26mdk #1 Sun Sep 23 17:06:39 CEST 2001 i686 unknown
[~]> gcc -v
Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i586-mandrake-linux-gnu/2.96/specs
gcc version 2.96 20000731 (Mandrake Linux 8.1 2.96-0.62mdk)
[~]> python
Python 2.2 (#1, Jan 17 2002, 21:03:58)
[GCC 2.96 20000731 (Mandrake Linux 8.2 2.96-0.71mdk)] on linux-i386
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> 1e-200**2
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
OverflowError: (34, 'Numerical result out of range')

This python2.2 was built by myself on a Mandrake 8.1 box (which comes with 
2.1 by default).

So it probably is a gcc/glib bug of some sort, but I don't really know where.

Cheers,

f.