Float16 support (WebGL, DataView, etc...)

[BlobTheKat]

What problem are you trying to solve?

WebGL supports the HALF_FLOAT type but while most CPUs support half float arithmetic, it is not exposed to the JS runtime

What solutions exist today?

Software encoding of values, very slow

How would you solve it?

A variety of self-explanatory APIs:

DataView.prototype.getFloat16(idx, little?)
DataView.prototype.setFloat16(idx, value, little?)
Float16Array
Math.f16round(value)
Math.toFloat16(value, endian = /*host*/) // Convert value to unsigned integer using 16 bits

// For parity
Math.toFloat32(value, endian = /*host*/) // Convert value to signed integer using 32 bits
Math.toFloat64BigInt(value, endian = /*host*/) // Convert value to unsigned BigInt using 64 bits

Anything else?

Let me know if I have missed anything!

[BlobTheKat]

#8708

[Kaiido]

This is handled by TC39 in https://github.com/tc39/proposal-float16array this is not something WHATWG would have authority upon.

[BlobTheKat]

This is handled by TC39 in https://github.com/tc39/proposal-float16array this is not something WHATWG would have authority upon.

oki