[Maxima-discuss] float(exp(10000)) works, but float(exp(10000/3)) doesn't

[David S. <d.s...@go...>]

Hello,

I'm getting very weird and inconsistent behavior when doing
float(exp(10000)) vs. float(exp(10000/3)) and float(exp(10000.0)).

The first one works - the result is promoted to bigfloat.
The second one gives me floating point infinity, even though the exp
argument is actually smaller!
The third one gives an error.

I guess this is not intended, right?

Maxima branch_5_37_base_407_g2af0c38 http://maxima.sourceforge.net
using Lisp GNU Common Lisp (GCL) GCL 2.6.12
Distributed under the GNU Public License. See the file COPYING.
Dedicated to the memory of William Schelter.
The function bug_report() provides bug reporting information.

(%i1) float(exp(10000));
(%o1)                       8.806818225658306b4342

(%i2) float(exp(10000/3));
(%o2)                               i.nfE+0

(%i3) float(exp(10000.0));
float: floating point overflow converting 8.806818225662922b4342
 -- an error. To debug this try: debugmode(true);

Best regards,
David Scherfgen