String conversion anomalies

[Kevin Ryde]

Jerry James <james at xemacs.org> writes:
>
> I packaged up a bunch of them into one bug report.

It's very hard to address multiple matters in one big jumble.  Don't
do that.

> GMP does not convert strings like strtol and strtod do.

True.

> #1-#3: The documentation says that a zero return value means that all
> characters of the string are valid for a number of the indicated type
> and base.  It does not indicate what happens when not all characters are
> valid.

It says "Otherwise it returns -1."

> Personally,
> I find the strtol behavior much nicer, because in XEmacs, I often know
> that a string starts with a number, and I want to convert that part of
> the string into a number.

We're contemplating strtol and strtod style variants, but don't have
them presently.

> #5: Same as #2 -- leading plus signs are apparently not allowed,

True.

> although I do not see that mentioned in the documentation anywhere.

If it doesn't say it accepts them then it doesn't :-).

> #6: Notice what happened here.  GMP reported that the string was invalid
> ... AFTER changing the numerator!

Yep.

> It should either leave the numerator alone

I don't see any particular need for that, the result is unspecified if
the input is bad.

> #12: This shows that mpf_set_str is willing to ignore trailing junk and
> not report that the result is invalid,

This is a bug, it doesn't validate the exponent properly.  There's a
tasks list entry about fixing that.

-- 
All followups to gmp-bugs at swox.com please.