Introduction

The testcases are intended to be both language-independent and representation-independent.^[2]  They comprise individually identified tests, each describing a single operation and its expected results. The tests are grouped into files to make it easier to test a new implementation incrementally, and are available at the General Decimal Arithmetic page, in dectest.zip (extended arithmetic) and dectest0.zip (subset arithmetic).

The testcase files should be considered experimental (or ‘beta’), and may contain errors. They are offered on an as-is basis. In particular, even passing all the tests does not guarantee that an implementation complies with any Standard or specification, because the tests are not exhaustive.

Comments on this draft and the testcases are encouraged. Please send any comments, suggestions, and corrections to the author, Mike Cowlishaw (mfc@speleotrove.com).

For further background details, including specifications in various formats and related decimal arithmetic links, please see the material at the General Decimal Arithmetic web site.

Appendix A summarizes the changes to this document since the first public draft.

Acknowledgements