rational numbers

[Martin Wierich]

Hi all,

José Romildo Malaquias wrote:

> Its numeric capabilities depends on a good library for arbitrary precision
> integers. Unfortunatly the current Clean implementation lacks such
> a library. So we are going to develop our own integer library. It should
> be efficient and well integrated into the language.
>

Seems like people on different places are doing the same stuff without knowing
this and hence we are doing work twice. We should coordinate our work (but not via
the clean-list). Mail me how far you are, what you want to have and how you
implement it.

>
> As you are working on an implementation for big integers, maybe my system
> would rely on them. Do you have any idea when I could get into your
> library? Which Clean version does it support? I hope it is/will be usable with
> the current Clean implementation.

As I said, we are adding new instructions to the ABC machine. That's why having a
new compiler version is necessary to use the library. But you don't have to wait
for the 2.0 compiler to be finished. We will release a successor of the 1.3.2
compiler.

> Will it make into the language or
> will be released as a separate library?

We haven't talked about that but the current plan is to release it as a seperate
library and not to change the language. So if you write an integer in Clean it
will be a 32 bit integer and nothing else.

  Martin Wierich
  University of Nijmegen