Re: big_int, was Re: New file uploaded to boost

From: helmut.zeisel_at_[hidden]
Date: 2001-07-03 14:10:22

Sorry if posted twice,
today the web interface reacts a bit strange :-)

--- In boost_at_y..., John Max Skaller <skaller_at_o...> wrote:
> helmut.zeisel_at_a... wrote:
> 
> > I did not yet implement shift operators.
> > As you might have noticed,
> > in my implementation the radix is a template parameter,
> 
> 
> 	WHY? I really don't understand. There's no use for templates
> here. 

But there is no run-time cost either.

> There's exactly one kind of desirable big_int, the fastest
> possible one, which always uses the biggest available word size
> as a radix. 
>

But how do you portable specify the fastest word size?
The answer might be different for a 16bit, 32bit, or a 64bit
platform offering a long long type.
 
On a given platform,
you will probably instantiate only one of these big_int classes,
after choosing the best parameters.

Helmut