Re: [boost] [SoC] project ideas: BigInt

Subject: Re: [boost] [SoC] project ideas: BigInt
From: Andrew Sutton (andrew.n.sutton_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-03-10 11:04:44

> > I put BigInt back on the project ideas board with a caveat that some
> > approaches aren't viable due to licensing concerns and that successful
> > proposals should include discussion of those concerns. Out of curiosity,
> do
> > we have a summary of those licensing issues and other concerns for this
> > project? I haven't had the time to dig through archives.
>
> I think a Boost licence (option) bigint that Boost code can just use
> without
> causing licensing difficulties would be very useful.
>
> But it needs to be very well documented with lots of tutorials and
> examples.
>
> If one can switch it to use faster, but possibly license-troublesome
> underlying
> engine, so much the better.
>

Agreed. I actually started toying with something similar 4 years ago (or
so), but it never really amounted to anything. Easy to start, hard to finish
:)

Thanks for bringing unearthing the reference.

Fingers crossed for a mentor and a good proposal. I happen to know that
Clang has an arbitrary precision int that might be worth looking at for
inspiration.

>  > If we're accepting for BigInt, should also solicit a project for
> arbitrary
> > precision floats? What about a fixed point data structure?
>
> An even bigger can of worms!  Let's walk before we try to run ;-)
>

Indeed... BigInt has only been a project idea for what... 5 years, now? If
this summer works out, maybe we can look at some of the CADNA code that Joel
referenced.

Andrew Sutton
andrew.n.sutton_at_[hidden]