Just a general observation: long double doesn't have to be supported *in silicon* to be available and useful. "__float128 is available on i386, x86_64, IA-64, LoongArch and hppa HP-UX, as well as on PowerPC..." (GCC). I used to use long double a lot on UltraSPARC where it was not implemented in the hardware but emulated. The binary128 format has been part of IEEE arithmetic since IEEE 754-2008 if not before. There are also several double-double libraries out there for C and C++l 'long double' in C does not mean 80-bit and never has, it just meant 'whatever you have that is at least as good as double'. I've seen 64-bit, 80-bit, 80 bits stored in 96, and 128-bit long doubles. The bottom line is that wider-than-64-bit floats could very well be supported on Macs *whatever* the hardware does. If they *aren't*, that's a business decision by Apple and others.
On Fri, 24 Oct 2025 at 07:47, Jeff Newmiller via R-help <[email protected]> wrote: > > a) This belongs on r-sig-mac. > > b) Apple silicon does not support long double. Run an emulator for an > architecture that does, or obtain another computer (e.g. cloud computing?) > > c) Don't use homebrew? > > On October 23, 2025 8:47:09 AM PDT, Naresh Gurbuxani > <[email protected]> wrote: > >On my new macbook pro, I installed R using package installer > >R-4.5.1-arm64.pkg > >My installation lacks long.double and libxml capabilities. How can these be > >enabled? > > > >My installation was in two steps: > >1. Install Xcode developer tools (sudo xcode-select install), GNU fortran > >compiler (gfortran-14.2-universal.pkg at cran), gnu readline, liblzma, and > >pcre2 (using macports), texlive, and Xquartz. Install R using above package > >installer. > >2. Source install.R from https://mac.r-project.org/bin/. In sudo R > >session, run install.libs("r-base-dev"). Reinstall R using above package > >installer. > > > >> capabilities() > > jpeg png tiff tcltk X11 aqua > > TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE > > http/ftp sockets libxml fifo cledit iconv > > TRUE TRUE FALSE TRUE TRUE TRUE > > NLS Rprof profmem cairo ICU long.double > > TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE FALSE > > libcurl > > TRUE > >> sessionInfo() > >R version 4.5.1 (2025-06-13) > >Platform: aarch64-apple-darwin20 > >Running under: macOS Sequoia 15.4.1 > > > >Matrix products: default > >BLAS: > >/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.5-arm64/Resources/lib/libRblas.0.dylib > >LAPACK: > >/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.5-arm64/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib; > > LAPACK version 3.12.1 > > > >locale: > >[1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8 > > > >time zone: America/New_York > >tzcode source: internal > > > >attached base packages: > >[1] stats graphics utils datasets grDevices methods base > > > >other attached packages: > >[1] latticeExtra_0.6-31 lattice_0.22-7 colorspace_2.1-2 > > > >loaded via a namespace (and not attached): > >[1] compiler_4.5.1 deldir_2.0-4 RColorBrewer_1.1-3 Rcpp_1.1.0 > >[5] interp_1.1-6 jpeg_0.1-11 grid_4.5.1 png_0.1-8 > >> > > > >nareshgurbuxani$ gfortran --version > >GNU Fortran (GCC) 14.2.0 > >Copyright (C) 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc. > >This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO > >warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. > >______________________________________________ > >[email protected] mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > >PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > >and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > -- > Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity. > > ______________________________________________ > [email protected] mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
