Right, that's basically what I was trying to say (in so many words). I learned a lot from your dtoa blog posts and Zmij's implementation. Thank you!
> has 2-3 wide multiplications compared to 1 for newer methods.
As written, the `shortFloat()` function always calls `uscale()` two times, followed by an optional third call. Each `uscale()` does two wide multiplications (one full 64x64->128 and one 64x64->hi64, in case we want to make that distinction), so that works out to either 4 or 6 wide multiplications in total. I think `shortFloat()` could be rewritten to always do exactly 2 wide multiplications (both 64x64->128) at the cost of some more ALU operations. However, I don't see how that could be further reduced to only one wide multiplication.
EDIT: Going back to look at Zmij's to_decimal, I just realized that it also doesn't do just one wide multiplication in the sense I originally meant, so what you're saying is likely correct in the first place. I overzealously used a different definition of "wide multiplication", which I probably should've realized, given the fact that my numbers are exactly double yours, but alas. My apologies.
> has 2-3 wide multiplications compared to 1 for newer methods.
As written, the `shortFloat()` function always calls `uscale()` two times, followed by an optional third call. Each `uscale()` does two wide multiplications (one full 64x64->128 and one 64x64->hi64, in case we want to make that distinction), so that works out to either 4 or 6 wide multiplications in total. I think `shortFloat()` could be rewritten to always do exactly 2 wide multiplications (both 64x64->128) at the cost of some more ALU operations. However, I don't see how that could be further reduced to only one wide multiplication.
EDIT: Going back to look at Zmij's to_decimal, I just realized that it also doesn't do just one wide multiplication in the sense I originally meant, so what you're saying is likely correct in the first place. I overzealously used a different definition of "wide multiplication", which I probably should've realized, given the fact that my numbers are exactly double yours, but alas. My apologies.