New Number Type

Scaffold a New Number System Type

Create all required files, CMake wiring, and test structure for a new number type in the Universal library.

Arguments

$ARGUMENTS — the type name (e.g., takum) and optionally a description of the template parameters. If not provided, ask the user.

Before You Start

1. Ask the user:

   • How many template parameters? (1-param like integer<nbits> or 2-param like posit<nbits, es>)
   • Is this a static (fixed-size) or elastic (adaptive) type?
   • What category? (integer, fixed-point, float, tapered, logarithmic, block format)
   • What internal building blocks does it use? (blockbinary, blocksignificand, blocktriple, etc.)

2. Read the matching skeleton template to use as the structural reference:

   • 1-param: include/sw/universal/number/skeleton_1param/
   • 2-param: include/sw/universal/number/skeleton_2params/

3. Read an existing similar type for behavioral reference (e.g., posit for tapered, cfloat for float, fixpnt for fixed-point).

CRITICAL Rules

These are hard-won lessons from past incidents. Violating them causes build failures or CI rejections.

Triviality

• Number types MUST be trivially constructible
• NO in-class member initializers: use uint8_t _bits; NOT uint8_t _bits{ 0 };
• ReportTrivialityOfType<T>() will static_assert fail if the type isn't trivial
• Default constructor must have empty body or be = default

Constexpr

• Do NOT mark constructors/assignment operators constexpr if they call std::frexp, std::ldexp, std::log2, etc.
• Only use constexpr if the conversion path uses only std::memcpy or integer arithmetic

Exception Hierarchy

• Number systems inherit from universal_arithmetic_exception / universal_internal_exception
• Internal building blocks inherit from std::runtime_error (NEVER from universal_*)
• Dependencies flow strictly downward: number system -> internal block -> never upward
• Each type has its OWN exception guard macro (e.g., TYPENAME_THROW_ARITHMETIC_EXCEPTION)
• The umbrella header forwards its exception config to building blocks:

  #if !defined(TYPENAME_THROW_ARITHMETIC_EXCEPTION)
  #define TYPENAME_THROW_ARITHMETIC_EXCEPTION 0
  #if !defined(BLOCKBINARY_THROW_ARITHMETIC_EXCEPTION)
  #define BLOCKBINARY_THROW_ARITHMETIC_EXCEPTION 0
  #endif
  #else
  #if !defined(BLOCKBINARY_THROW_ARITHMETIC_EXCEPTION)
  #define BLOCKBINARY_THROW_ARITHMETIC_EXCEPTION TYPENAME_THROW_ARITHMETIC_EXCEPTION
  #endif
  #endif
  

Portability

• Never use long double manual bit-shift division — use std::ldexp(1.0l, exponent) instead
• Always initialize blockbinary temporaries (clang doesn't zero stack like gcc)
• Test with BOTH gcc AND clang before committing

File Creation Order

Create files in this exact order (dependencies flow top-to-bottom):

Step 1: Header files in include/sw/universal/number/TYPE/

Umbrella header include order (MUST follow this sequence):

1. Compiler directives (compiler.hpp, architecture.hpp, bit_cast.hpp, long_double.hpp)
2. Required stdlib (<iostream>, <iomanip>)
3. Behavioral compilation switches (TYPENAME_THROW_ARITHMETIC_EXCEPTION, etc.)
4. Exception config forwarding to building blocks
5. Trait function headers (number_traits.hpp, arithmetic_traits.hpp)
6. exceptions.hpp
7. TYPE_fwd.hpp
8. TYPE_impl.hpp
9. TYPE_traits.hpp (from traits/ directory)
10. numeric_limits.hpp
11. manipulators.hpp
12. attributes.hpp
13. mathlib.hpp (if applicable)

Step 2: Traits file in include/sw/universal/traits/

The trait MUST match the exact template parameters of the class.

Step 3: Test directory structure

Create the test directory under the appropriate category. The repo uses static/<CATEGORY>/<TYPE>/ where CATEGORY groups related types:

static/<CATEGORY>/TYPE/         (or elastic/TYPE/ for adaptive types)
  CMakeLists.txt
  api/
    api.cpp                     # Primary API test — start here
  conversion/
    (empty initially)
  logic/
    (empty initially)
  arithmetic/
    (empty initially)
  math/
    (empty initially)
  complex/
    (empty initially, only populated when BUILD_COMPLEX=ON)

Step 4: Test CMakeLists.txt

Use the standard pattern. The compile_all label path follows: "Number Systems/static/<NUMBER_CATEGORY>/<ENCODING>/TYPE/<testdir>"

Check an existing sibling type's CMakeLists.txt for the exact label prefix.

file(GLOB API_SRC        "api/*.cpp")
file(GLOB CONVERSION_SRC "conversion/*.cpp")
file(GLOB LOGIC_SRC      "logic/*.cpp")
file(GLOB ARITHMETIC_SRC "arithmetic/*.cpp")
file(GLOB MATH_SRC       "math/*.cpp")
file(GLOB COMPLEX_SRC    "complex/*.cpp")

# Example for lns:    "Number Systems/static/floating-point/logarithmic/lns/api"
# Example for fixpnt: "Number Systems/static/fixed-point/binary/fixpnt/api"
# Example for dint:   "Number Systems/static/integer/decimal/dint/api"
compile_all("true" "TYPE" "Number Systems/static/<NUMBER_CATEGORY>/<ENCODING>/TYPE/api" "${API_SRC}")
compile_all("true" "TYPE" "Number Systems/static/<NUMBER_CATEGORY>/<ENCODING>/TYPE/conversion" "${CONVERSION_SRC}")
compile_all("true" "TYPE" "Number Systems/static/<NUMBER_CATEGORY>/<ENCODING>/TYPE/logic" "${LOGIC_SRC}")
compile_all("true" "TYPE" "Number Systems/static/<NUMBER_CATEGORY>/<ENCODING>/TYPE/arithmetic" "${ARITHMETIC_SRC}")
compile_all("true" "TYPE" "Number Systems/static/<NUMBER_CATEGORY>/<ENCODING>/TYPE/math" "${MATH_SRC}")
compile_all("true" "TYPE" "Number Systems/static/<NUMBER_CATEGORY>/<ENCODING>/TYPE/complex" "${COMPLEX_SRC}")

Step 5: CMake wiring in root CMakeLists.txt

4 insertion points (find the right alphabetical position among existing types):

1. Option definition (~line 160):

   option(UNIVERSAL_BUILD_NUMBER_TYPE    "Set to ON to build TYPE tests"    OFF)
   

2. UNIVERSAL_BUILD_NUMBER_STATICS cascade (~line 831):

   set(UNIVERSAL_BUILD_NUMBER_TYPE ON)
   

3. add_subdirectory block (~line 974):

   if(UNIVERSAL_BUILD_NUMBER_TYPE)
     add_subdirectory("static/<CATEGORY>/TYPE")
   endif(UNIVERSAL_BUILD_NUMBER_TYPE)
   

4. CI_LITE cascade (~line 756, optional — only if portability-critical):

   set(UNIVERSAL_BUILD_NUMBER_TYPE ON)
   

Step 6: Initial api.cpp test

Create a minimal test that:

• Includes the umbrella header
• Sets TYPENAME_THROW_ARITHMETIC_EXCEPTION 1
• Tests default construction
• Tests construction from native types (int, float, double)
• Tests type_tag() output
• Tests ReportTrivialityOfType<TYPE<config>>()
• Uses ReportTestSuiteHeader() / ReportTestSuiteResults() pattern
• Has full exception catch blocks

Template Parameter Naming Conventions

Verification Checklist

After creating all files:

1. Build with gcc: cmake --build --preset gcc-debug --target TYPE_api
2. Run the test: build/gcc-debug/static/TYPE/TYPE_api
3. Build with clang: cmake --build --preset clang-debug --target TYPE_api
4. Run the clang test: build/clang-debug/static/TYPE/TYPE_api
5. Verify triviality passes (no static_assert failures)
6. Verify type_tag() produces expected output

Reference Implementations

For behavioral reference, read an existing type that's similar:

Source: stillwater-sc/universal — distributed by TomeVault.