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Apple: We have decided to no longer release Libm source (2013)

openradar.io

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Re: Apple: We have decided to no longer release Libm source (2013)

#3

Post by 0x0 »

The opensource.apple.com website provides less stuff for every OS release. iOS releases stopped at iOS 6.1.3 (nothing for 7.0.x, 7.1.x, 8.0.x, 8.1.x). OSX releases are usually delayed for quite a while (10.10 is not yet there, for example).

The trend here has been to close up more and more stuff for quite a long while already :(

Re: Apple: We have decided to no longer release Libm source (2013)

#7

Post by rwmj »

stereo wrote: post #5

It looks like a maths library, what was so special about it, and why does Apple needs to make its own?

If you have loads of engineers, special hardware of your own (ARM), and secret insights into other hardware from your suppliers (Intel), then I can see it could make a lot of sense.

That doesn't mean it's a nice thing to do. Was this derived originally from FreeBSD code? This could be why the GPL is a good thing.

Re: Apple: We have decided to no longer release Libm source (2013)

#8

Post by nextw33k »

stereo wrote: post #5

It looks like a maths library, what was so special about it, and why does Apple needs to make its own?

Getting maths correct is actually a hard problem to solve. Reading the problems that engineers have had over the years with floating point numbers will give you an insight into the situation.

http://floating-point-gui.de/xkcd/

A good quality math library that is optimised to take advantage of new processor extensions whilst still being correct is worth a lot.

I would imagine that there is a lack of engineering time to make this open source, rather than some nefarious purpose.

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