From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,9a441a9594e85d08 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Nick Roberts" Subject: Re: Bignum modular types in Ada95 Date: 1998/01/31 Message-ID: <01bd2e95$e917d560$LocalHost@xhv46.dial.pipex.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 320946267 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <34CE568C.55D7E23D@cl.cam.ac.uk> <34CF3E78.F816DB5@cl.cam.ac.uk> <34D082F9.ABEC0D3B@elca-matrix.ch> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Organization: UUNet UK server (post doesn't reflect views of UUNet UK) Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1998-01-31T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: 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 wrote in article ... > In article <34D082F9.ABEC0D3B@elca-matrix.ch>, > Mats Weber 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!