This is a Kotlin Multiplatform line-by-line transliteration port of float8.

Original Project: This port is based on float8. All design credit and project intent belong to the upstream authors; this repository is a faithful port to Kotlin Multiplatform with no behavioural changes intended.

This is an in-progress port. The goal is feature parity with the upstream Rust crate while providing a native Kotlin Multiplatform API. Every Kotlin file carries a // port-lint: source <path> header naming its upstream Rust counterpart so the AST-distance tool can track provenance.

The text below is reproduced from https://github.com/LaurentMazare/float8. It is the upstream project's own description and remains under the upstream authors' authorship; links have been rewritten to absolute upstream URLs where appropriate so they continue to resolve from this repository.

This crate provides 2 types:

• F8E4M3: Sign + 4-bit exponent + 3-bit mantissa. More precise but less dynamic range.
• F8E5M2: Sign + 5-bit exponent + 2-bit mantissa. Less precise but more dynamic range (same exponent as f16).

Generally, this crate is modelled after the half crate, so it can be used alongside and with minimal code changes.

• This crate provides no_std support
• Requires Rust 1.70 or greater

• std - Enable features that depend on the Rust standard library.
• serde - Add support for the serde crate with Serialize and Deserialize traits.
• num-traits - Implement traits from num-traits such as ToPrimitive, FromPrimitive, AsPrimitive, Num, Float, FloatCore, and Bounded.
• bytemuck - Implement traits from bytemuck including Zeroable and Pod
• zerocopy - Implement traits from zerocopy including AsBytes and FromBytes
• rand_distr - Implement traits from rand_distr including Distribution and others
• rkyv - Enable zero-copy deserialization with rkyv.

• Good introduction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minifloat
• Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2209.05433

dependencies {
    implementation("io.github.kotlinmania:float8-kotlin:0.1.0")
}

./gradlew build
./gradlew test

• macOS arm64
• Linux x64
• Windows mingw-x64
• iOS arm64 / simulator-arm64 (Swift export + XCFramework)
• JS (browser + Node.js)
• Wasm-JS (browser + Node.js)
• Android (API 24+)

See AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md for translator discipline, port-lint header convention, and Rust → Kotlin idiom mapping.

This Kotlin port is distributed under the same license terms as the upstream float8. See LICENSE (and any sibling LICENSE-* / NOTICE files mirrored from upstream) for the full text.

Original work copyrighted by the float8 authors.
Kotlin port: Copyright (c) 2026 Sydney Renee and The Solace Project.

Thanks to the float8 maintainers and contributors for the original Rust implementation. This port reproduces their work in Kotlin Multiplatform; bug reports about upstream design or behavior should go to the upstream repository.