Re: [eigen] Incorrect result of multiplication with scalar (mingw gcc 4.5 x64)

[Benoit Jacob <jacob.benoit.1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Since we're discussing a possible compiler bug here, can you please
make a compilable testcase and give us your complete g++ command line?

Benoit

2010/8/26 Eamon Nerbonne <eamon.nerbonne@xxxxxxxxx>:
> Hi all,
>
> I stumbled across a compiler-specific bug (Current Hg tip version 'fix bad
> "using typename"'):
>
>     static MatrixXd Covariance(Eigen::MatrixBase<MatrixXd> const & points,
> VectorXd const & mean) {
>         return (points.colwise() - mean) * (points.colwise() -
> mean).transpose() * (1.0/(points.cols()-1.0));
>     }
>
>     static MatrixXd CovarianceB(Eigen::MatrixBase<MatrixXd>const & points,
> VectorXd const & mean) {
>         VectorXd diff = VectorXd::Zero(points.rows());
>         MatrixXd cov = MatrixXd::Zero(points.rows(),points.rows());
>         for(int i=0;i<points.cols();++i) {
>             diff.noalias() = points.col(i) - mean;
>             cov.noalias() += diff * diff.transpose();
>         }
>         return cov * (1.0/(points.cols()-1.0));
>     }
>
> These two methods return approximately equal results in MSC but not in GCC;
> turns out the multiplication by the scalar "1.0/(points.cols()-1.0" is
> ignored by GCC in the first example.
>
> Rearranging the order of the multiplication (i.e. putting the scalar factor
> in front or in the middle) provides a workaround at no performance cost, as
> does placing the result into an intermediate variable with the assignment
> operator rather than returning it directly (with perf cost).  On the other
> hand, this is also broken:
>
>     static MatrixXd Covariance(Eigen::MatrixBase<MatrixXd> const & points,
> VectorXd const & mean) {
>         return  (1.0/(points.cols()-1.0)) *  ((points.colwise() - mean) *
> (points.colwise() - mean).transpose());
>     }
>
> I'm guessing somewhere some specialization of GeneralProduct is wrong, but
> as to why this is compiler specific or what exactly the problem is, I don't
> know.
>
> --eamon@xxxxxxxxxxxx - Tel#:+31-6-15142163
>