You might be right about bit-size (although I disagree) but that is not the only complaint: the lack (at least for that age, I do not know about now) of true 'e

You might be right about bit-size (although I disagree) but that is not the only complaint: the lack (at least for that age, I do not know about now) of true 'exceptions' for NaNs, infs, etc... is very very important in many ordinary circumstances and cannot be dismissed as a whim. One should be able to check the status of an operation without having to implement a strange concoction (a 'trap').