Library functions: strtod

[rkc at xn.ll.mit.edu]

I have a number of routines that read in ascii files with floating point
numbers in them.  When I recently recompiled them using using Sun's system
4.0.3, I noticed that the code took approximately 2.8 times longer to run
than the code compiled under system 3.5 (but running under system 4.0.3).
The main function involved was strtod. Why has this routine gotten so
slow?  (Note:  I also compiled using the -static option, and this didn't
seem to help much.)  

I did some profiling of the new routine, and a number of expensive (slow)
routines appear to be called that did not exist before:

	_fp_rightshift
	string_to_decimal
	_fp_normalize
	decimal_to_unpacked
	decimal_to_binary_fraction
	unpacked_to_decimal

Machine: Sun 3/110.

Will these ever return to their original speed?  Why was this changed?

	-Rob

E-mail to rkc at xn.ll.mit.edu