| [18190] | 1 | Copyright 1991, 1996, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
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| [15293] | 2 | |
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| [18190] | 3 | This file is part of the GNU MP Library. |
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| 4 | |
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| 5 | The GNU MP Library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify |
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| 6 | it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by |
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| 7 | the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your |
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| 8 | option) any later version. |
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| 9 | |
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| 10 | The GNU MP Library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but |
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| 11 | WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY |
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| 12 | or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public |
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| 13 | License for more details. |
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| 14 | |
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| 15 | You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License |
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| 16 | along with the GNU MP Library; see the file COPYING.LIB. If not, write to |
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| 17 | the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA |
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| 18 | 02111-1307, USA. |
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| 19 | |
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| 20 | |
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| 21 | |
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| 22 | |
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| 23 | |
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| 24 | |
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| [15293] | 25 | THE GNU MP LIBRARY |
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| 26 | |
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| 27 | |
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| 28 | GNU MP is a library for arbitrary precision arithmetic, operating on signed |
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| 29 | integers, rational numbers, and floating point numbers. It has a rich set of |
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| 30 | functions, and the functions have a regular interface. |
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| 31 | |
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| 32 | GNU MP is designed to be as fast as possible, both for small operands and huge |
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| 33 | operands. The speed is achieved by using fullwords as the basic arithmetic |
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| 34 | type, by using fast algorithms, with carefully optimized assembly code for the |
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| 35 | most common inner loops for lots of CPUs, and by a general emphasis on speed |
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| 36 | (instead of simplicity or elegance). |
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| 37 | |
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| 38 | GNU MP is believed to be faster than any other similar library. Its advantage |
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| 39 | increases with operand sizes for certain operations, since GNU MP in many |
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| 40 | cases has asymptotically faster algorithms. |
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| 41 | |
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| 42 | GNU MP is free software and may be freely copied on the terms contained in the |
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| 43 | files COPYING.LIB and COPYING (most of GNU MP is under the former, some under |
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| 44 | the latter). |
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| 45 | |
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| 46 | |
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| 47 | |
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| 48 | OVERVIEW OF GNU MP |
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| 49 | |
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| 50 | There are five classes of functions in GNU MP. |
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| 51 | |
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| 52 | 1. Signed integer arithmetic functions (mpz). These functions are intended |
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| 53 | to be easy to use, with their regular interface. The associated type is |
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| 54 | `mpz_t'. |
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| 55 | |
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| 56 | 2. Rational arithmetic functions (mpq). For now, just a small set of |
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| 57 | functions necessary for basic rational arithmetics. The associated type |
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| 58 | is `mpq_t'. |
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| 59 | |
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| 60 | 3. Floating-point arithmetic functions (mpf). If the C type `double' |
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| 61 | doesn't give enough precision for your application, declare your |
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| 62 | variables as `mpf_t' instead, set the precision to any number desired, |
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| 63 | and call the functions in the mpf class for the arithmetic operations. |
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| 64 | |
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| 65 | 4. Positive-integer, hard-to-use, very low overhead functions are in the |
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| 66 | mpn class. No memory management is performed. The caller must ensure |
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| 67 | enough space is available for the results. The set of functions is not |
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| 68 | regular, nor is the calling interface. These functions accept input |
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| 69 | arguments in the form of pairs consisting of a pointer to the least |
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| 70 | significant word, and an integral size telling how many limbs (= words) |
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| 71 | the pointer points to. |
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| 72 | |
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| 73 | Almost all calculations, in the entire package, are made by calling these |
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| 74 | low-level functions. |
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| 75 | |
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| 76 | 5. Berkeley MP compatible functions. |
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| 77 | |
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| 78 | To use these functions, include the file "mp.h". You can test if you are |
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| 79 | using the GNU version by testing if the symbol __GNU_MP__ is defined. |
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| 80 | |
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| 81 | For more information on how to use GNU MP, please refer to the documentation. |
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| 82 | It is composed from the file gmp.texi, and can be displayed on the screen or |
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| 83 | printed. How to do that, as well how to build the library, is described in |
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| 84 | the INSTALL file in this directory. |
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| 85 | |
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| 86 | |
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| 87 | |
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| 88 | REPORTING BUGS |
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| 89 | |
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| 90 | If you find a bug in the library, please make sure to tell us about it! |
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| 91 | |
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| 92 | You should first check the GNU MP web pages at http://www.swox.com/gmp/, |
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| 93 | under "Status of the current release". There will be patches for all known |
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| 94 | serious bugs there. |
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| 95 | |
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| 96 | Report bugs to bug-gmp@gnu.org. What information is needed in a good bug |
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| 97 | report is described in the manual. The same address can be used for |
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| 98 | suggesting modifications and enhancements. |
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| 99 | |
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| 100 | |
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| 101 | |
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| 102 | |
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| 103 | ---------------- |
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| 104 | Local variables: |
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| 105 | mode: text |
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| 106 | fill-column: 78 |
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| 107 | End: |
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