#7858: Fix definitions of abs/signum for Floats/Doubles -----------------------------+---------------------------------------------- Reporter: lerkok | Owner: Type: bug | Status: new Priority: normal | Component: libraries/base Version: 7.6.3 | Keywords: floating point Os: Unknown/Multiple | Architecture: Unknown/Multiple Failure: None/Unknown | Blockedby: Blocking: | Related: -----------------------------+---------------------------------------------- The current definition of abs doesn't work correctly for -0.0 (negative zero); and the signum function doesn't return NaN on NaN. The issue is discussed in detail in the following thread: http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/libraries/2013-April/019677.html To summarize, the proposal is to change both the Float and Double instance definitions for signum/abs as follows: {{{ signum x | x == 0 = x | isNaN x = x | x > 0 = 1 | otherwise = negate 1 abs x | isNegativeZero x = 0 | x >= 0 = x | otherwise = negate x }}} Simon PJ expressed interest in taking advantage of the underlying platforms floating-point instructions when available to speed things up, and the above referenced thread has some discussion regarding how this might be done. However, it might be best to start with a "correct" implementation first, and then later worry about speed. On a related note, this "bug" is actually present in the Haskell'98 standard definition itself, which seems to have overlooked NaN's and negative-0's. It'd be great if the standard got a similar amendment as well. -- Ticket URL: http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/7858 GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ The Glasgow Haskell Compiler