From: "Nick Roberts" <Nick.Roberts@dial.pipex.com>
Subject: Re: Bignum modular types in Ada95
Date: 1998/01/31
Date: 1998-01-31T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <01bd2e95$e917d560$LocalHost@xhv46.dial.pipex.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: EnKEtu.KGp@world.std.com
I'm fairly sure that arbitrary-precision provision would be sensible for
both integer and fixed-point (possibly including decimal) types, but not
for floating-point types.
The reason for fixed-point support is that there will be many applications
requiring fixed-point types with huge ranges/accuracy (e.g.
astro-navigation (this is not a joke :-)) besides cryptography;
implementation is not an issue, since fixed-point types are (always?)
implemented as integer types anyway.
I suspect that no-one would want to use a floating-point type that couldn't
use the target machine's floating-point hardware. Some RISC machines might
be able to do arbitrary-length floating point arithmetic (and maybe some
machines of the future), but I'm not sure that there would be a demand for
this functionality, in practice. Would there?
--
== Nick Roberts ================================================
== Croydon, UK ===========================
== ================
== Proprietor, ThoughtWing Software ==========
== Independent Software Development Consultant ======
== Nick.Roberts@dial.pipex.com ====
== Voicemail & Fax +44 181-405 1124 ===
== ==
== I live not in myself, but I become ==
=== Portion of that around me; and to me ==
==== High mountains are a feeling, but the hum ==
======= Of human cities torture.
=========== -- Byron [Childe Harold]
Robert A Duff <robertduff@world.std.com> wrote in article
<EnKEtu.KGp@world.std.com>...
> In article <34D082F9.ABEC0D3B@elca-matrix.ch>,
> Mats Weber <Mats.Weber@elca-matrix.ch> wrote:
[snip]
> >- Only integers or reals as well ?
>
> Reals? No, just integers and rationals, which is exactly what is
> already supported at compile time (e.g. "X: constant :=
> 1_000_000_000_000/3_000_000_000_000;" has to be *exactly* one-third in
> current Ada compilers). I'm not asking for an exact representation of
> the square root of 2 or pi or e!
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1998-01-31 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 31+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1998-01-27 0:00 Bignum modular types in Ada95 Markus Kuhn
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Dmitriy Anisimkov
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1998-02-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-02-07 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1998-02-09 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Markus Kuhn
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-29 0:00 ` Markus Kuhn
1998-01-30 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-02-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-02-02 0:00 ` Tarjei T. Jensen
1998-02-02 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-02-03 0:00 ` Tarjei T. Jensen
1998-02-04 0:00 ` Keith Thompson
[not found] ` <EnIIvn.3zr@world.std.com>
1998-01-29 0:00 ` Mats Weber
[not found] ` <EnKEtu.KGp@world.std.com>
1998-01-30 0:00 ` Markus Kuhn
1998-01-30 0:00 ` Mats Weber
1998-01-30 0:00 ` Markus Kuhn
1998-01-31 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1998-02-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-30 0:00 ` Mats Weber
1998-02-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-02-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-31 0:00 ` Nick Roberts [this message]
1998-02-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-29 0:00 ` Markus Kuhn
1998-01-31 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1998-02-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
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