The "libnum" library implements exact-precision rational arithmetic.
It is built upon the state-of-the-art BigNum arbitrary-precision
integer arithmetic package, and therefore achieves very high
performance (it's faster than Maple, for instance).
This library is derived from Valerie Menissie-Morain's implementation
of rational arithmetic for Caml V3.1 (INRIA), and builds on the BigNum
package developed by Bernard Serpette, Jean Vuillemin and Jean-Claude
Herve (INRIA and Digital PRL). Xavier Leroy (INRIA) did the Caml Light
port. Victor Manuel Gulias Fernandez did the Caml Special Light port.
This library is documented in "The CAML Numbers Reference Manual" by
Valerie Menissier-Morain, technical report 141, INRIA, july 1992,
available by anonymous FTP from ftp.inria.fr, directory
INRIA/publications/RT, file RT-0141.ps.Z.
USAGE:
To use the bignum library from your programs, just do
ocamlc -custom <options> nums.cma <.cmo and .ml files> -cclib -lnums
for the linking phase.
If you'd like to have the bignum functions available at toplevel, do
ocamlmktop -o ocamltopnum -custom <options> nums.cma <.cmo and .ml files> -cclib -lnums
./ocamltopnum
As an example, try:
open Num;;
let rec fact n =
if n = 0 then Int 1 else mult_num (num_of_int n) (fact(n-1));;
string_of_num(fact 1000);;
KNOWN TARGET ARCHITECTURES:
C portable C version (default)
sparc Sparc V8 assembly code, SunOS 4.1
sparc-solaris Sparc V8 assembly code, Solaris 2
supersparc Sparc V9 assembly code, SunOS 4.1
supersparc-solaris Sparc V9 assembly code, Solaris 2
mips MIPS R2000, R3000, R4000 assembly code
alpha DEC Alpha (21064) assembly code
68K Motorola 68020 assembly code
vax DEC VAX assembly code
i960 Intel 80960A assembly code
ns National Semiconductors 32032 assembly code
pyramid Pyramid minicomputers assembly code
LEGAL NOTICE:
This work uses the BigNum package developed jointly by INRIA and Digital PRL.
The code in the bignum/ subdirectory is copyright INRIA and Digital,
and may be reproduced and distributed freely to non commercial usage
according to the conditions stated in the documentation of this package
(directory bignum/doc).
KNOWN PROBLEMS:
64-bit architectures are not yet fully supported. The test suite passes on
a Dec Alpha, but some bugs remain.
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