reported this enhancement to fdlibm-comments, and got the following
reply:
Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 14:35:25 -0700
From: Kwok.Ng@Eng.Sun.COM (KC Ng)
To: fdlibm-comments@sunpro.Eng.Sun.COM, jtc@cygnus.com
Subject: Re: fdlibm 5.2: why do core functions use sqrt?
> I noticed that core (e_*.c) fdlibm functions like __ieee754_acos()
> ensure that they call sqrt() with arguments in range (x > 0), when
> they could call __ieee754_sqrt() directly.
>
> Since sqrt() does a lot more work (verifies x is in range, etc.) is
> there any reason for this? I'd think that calling __iee754_sqrt()
> would be more appropriate. ....
You are right. __ieee754_sqrt should be in use with e_*.c.