1Copyright 1991, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2
3This file is part of the GNU MP Library.
4
5The GNU MP Library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
6it under the terms of either:
7
8 * the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
9 Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your
10 option) any later version.
11
12or
13
14 * the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
15 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any
16 later version.
17
18or both in parallel, as here.
19
20The GNU MP Library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
21WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
22or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
23for more details.
24
25You should have received copies of the GNU General Public License and the
26GNU Lesser General Public License along with the GNU MP Library. If not,
27see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
28
29
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32
33
34 THE GNU MP LIBRARY
35
36
37GNU MP is a library for arbitrary precision arithmetic, operating on signed
38integers, rational numbers, and floating point numbers. It has a rich set of
39functions, and the functions have a regular interface.
40
41GNU MP is designed to be as fast as possible, both for small operands and huge
42operands. The speed is achieved by using fullwords as the basic arithmetic
43type, by using fast algorithms, with carefully optimized assembly code for the
44most common inner loops for lots of CPUs, and by a general emphasis on speed
45(instead of simplicity or elegance).
46
47GNU MP is believed to be faster than any other similar library. Its advantage
48increases with operand sizes for certain operations, since GNU MP in many
49cases has asymptotically faster algorithms.
50
51GNU MP is free software and may be freely copied on the terms contained in the
52files COPYING* (see the manual for information on which license(s) applies to
53which components of GNU MP).
54
55
56
57 OVERVIEW OF GNU MP
58
59There are five classes of functions in GNU MP.
60
61 1. Signed integer arithmetic functions (mpz). These functions are intended
62 to be easy to use, with their regular interface. The associated type is
63 `mpz_t'.
64
65 2. Rational arithmetic functions (mpq). For now, just a small set of
66 functions necessary for basic rational arithmetics. The associated type
67 is `mpq_t'.
68
69 3. Floating-point arithmetic functions (mpf). If the C type `double'
70 doesn't give enough precision for your application, declare your
71 variables as `mpf_t' instead, set the precision to any number desired,
72 and call the functions in the mpf class for the arithmetic operations.
73
74 4. Positive-integer, hard-to-use, very low overhead functions are in the
75 mpn class. No memory management is performed. The caller must ensure
76 enough space is available for the results. The set of functions is not
77 regular, nor is the calling interface. These functions accept input
78 arguments in the form of pairs consisting of a pointer to the least
79 significant word, and an integral size telling how many limbs (= words)
80 the pointer points to.
81
82 Almost all calculations, in the entire package, are made by calling these
83 low-level functions.
84
85 5. Berkeley MP compatible functions.
86
87 To use these functions, include the file "mp.h". You can test if you are
88 using the GNU version by testing if the symbol __GNU_MP__ is defined.
89
90For more information on how to use GNU MP, please refer to the documentation.
91It is composed from the file doc/gmp.texi, and can be displayed on the screen
92or printed. How to do that, as well how to build the library, is described in
93the INSTALL file in this directory.
94
95
96
97 REPORTING BUGS
98
99If you find a bug in the library, please make sure to tell us about it!
100
101You should first check the GNU MP web pages at https://gmplib.org/, under
102"Status of the current release". There will be patches for all known serious
103bugs there.
104
105Report bugs to gmp-bugs@gmplib.org. What information is needed in a useful bug
106report is described in the manual. The same address can be used for suggesting
107modifications and enhancements.
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