Code Warrior for Coldfire FP Libraries

[dvona]

I'm working with the MCF5213 and attempting to emulate floating point using the provided fp libraries in directory

{Code Warrior Install}\E68K_Support\Libraries

such as fp_coldfire.a.

My questions:

1) How can I find out what is contained in each of these libraries (for instance, I am looking for a function to convert floats to strings).  I can't find anything in the help, nor am I able to read the files

2) What is the difference between the libraries?  I can tell (sort of) from the names such as fp_coldfire.o, fp_coldfire_ieee.o, etc, but I would like to get an exact description of what is contained in these libraries

3) What is the difference between a .a and a .o file?  I can't read any of these in code warrior.  Does it matter which one I include in my project?

Thanks!

[CrasyCat]

Hello

The library file fp_coldfire*.a contains run time functions for floating point operation. Normally you should not invoke the functions from this library directly in your code. The compiler will use them when requested by a floating point arithmetic operation.

The table below describes the difference between the different library: 

fp_coldfire             Non IEEE conforming

fp_coldire_nodiv    Non IEEE conforming supporting for parts missing the hardware divide

fp_coldfire_ieee    IEEE conforming

fp_coldfire_ieee_nodiv IEEE conforming supporting for parts missing the hardware divide

fp_coldfire_ieee_pidpic IEEE conforming with position independent code/data

fp_coldfire_ieee_pidpic_nodiv IEEE conforming with position independent code/data for parts missing the hardware divide

If you wish to convert a floating point variable to a string I would recommend you to use the standard ANSI C function sprintf. Please refer to your favorite ANSI C programming manual for information on how to use that function.

A .o file is an object file and a .a file is an object library. An object library encapsulate a set of object file (.o). Both files are binary files and cannot be opened in an text editor.

These file have the standard ELF DWARF file format.

I hope this helps.

CrasyCat