Document underflow limitation in Randomizer::getFloat() #5240
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TimWolla
approved these changes
Feb 2, 2026
TimWolla
reviewed
Feb 2, 2026
Co-authored-by: Tim Düsterhus <timwolla@googlemail.com>
TimWolla
approved these changes
Feb 2, 2026
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Summary
Add a caution note documenting that the γ-section algorithm intentionally leaves underflow unhandled. This may result in incorrect values for intervals with boundaries in the subnormal range of
floating point numbers (values smaller than approximately 2^-1020).
This limitation is inherent to the algorithm as stated in the reference paper: "all our results hold in the absence of underflow."
Refs #3339