108 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
108 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
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Copyright 1991, 1996, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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This file is part of the GNU MP Library.
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The GNU MP Library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your
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option) any later version.
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The GNU MP Library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
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WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
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or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public
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License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
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along with the GNU MP Library; see the file COPYING.LIB. If not, write to
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the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
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02110-1301, USA.
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THE GNU MP LIBRARY
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GNU MP is a library for arbitrary precision arithmetic, operating on signed
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integers, rational numbers, and floating point numbers. It has a rich set of
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functions, and the functions have a regular interface.
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GNU MP is designed to be as fast as possible, both for small operands and huge
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operands. The speed is achieved by using fullwords as the basic arithmetic
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type, by using fast algorithms, with carefully optimized assembly code for the
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most common inner loops for lots of CPUs, and by a general emphasis on speed
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(instead of simplicity or elegance).
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GNU MP is believed to be faster than any other similar library. Its advantage
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increases with operand sizes for certain operations, since GNU MP in many
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cases has asymptotically faster algorithms.
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GNU MP is free software and may be freely copied on the terms contained in the
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files COPYING.LIB and COPYING (most of GNU MP is under the former, some under
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the latter).
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OVERVIEW OF GNU MP
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There are five classes of functions in GNU MP.
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1. Signed integer arithmetic functions (mpz). These functions are intended
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to be easy to use, with their regular interface. The associated type is
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`mpz_t'.
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2. Rational arithmetic functions (mpq). For now, just a small set of
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functions necessary for basic rational arithmetics. The associated type
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is `mpq_t'.
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3. Floating-point arithmetic functions (mpf). If the C type `double'
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doesn't give enough precision for your application, declare your
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variables as `mpf_t' instead, set the precision to any number desired,
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and call the functions in the mpf class for the arithmetic operations.
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4. Positive-integer, hard-to-use, very low overhead functions are in the
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mpn class. No memory management is performed. The caller must ensure
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enough space is available for the results. The set of functions is not
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regular, nor is the calling interface. These functions accept input
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arguments in the form of pairs consisting of a pointer to the least
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significant word, and an integral size telling how many limbs (= words)
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the pointer points to.
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Almost all calculations, in the entire package, are made by calling these
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low-level functions.
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5. Berkeley MP compatible functions.
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To use these functions, include the file "mp.h". You can test if you are
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using the GNU version by testing if the symbol __GNU_MP__ is defined.
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For more information on how to use GNU MP, please refer to the documentation.
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It is composed from the file gmp.texi, and can be displayed on the screen or
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printed. How to do that, as well how to build the library, is described in
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the INSTALL file in this directory.
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REPORTING BUGS
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If you find a bug in the library, please make sure to tell us about it!
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You should first check the GNU MP web pages at http://www.swox.com/gmp/,
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under "Status of the current release". There will be patches for all known
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serious bugs there.
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Report bugs to bug-gmp@gnu.org. What information is needed in a good bug
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report is described in the manual. The same address can be used for
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suggesting modifications and enhancements.
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----------------
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Local variables:
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mode: text
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fill-column: 78
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End:
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