Re: [boost] [Review Request] Multiprecision Arithmetic Library

Subject: Re: [boost] [Review Request] Multiprecision Arithmetic Library
From: Thomas Heller (thom.heller_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-04-03 03:12:34

On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 8:12 AM, Christof Donat <cd_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> > > Just thinking out loud... is there ever any use case for big-integer
> > > exponents?
> >
> > Yes, those are very large numbers :-). I would say that int32 exponent
> > should be good enough (I don't mean that it should be used). I am eager to
> > see applications of int64 exponent range.
>
> Mathematics has some need to work with really very big numbers. That is
> whenever you try to disprove a hypothesis like e.g. the Rieman hypothesis by
> experimentally searching for a case where it does not hold.
>
> That is nothing I am doing, but it to my mind when I thought about where to
> use exponents bigger than int32.
>
> Is there any reason not to make the exponent type a template parameter so that
> the user can chose arbittrarily instead of trying to anticipate future uses of
> the library?

Just a crazy idea ... what about if the exponent is a big integer as
well? And the mantissa ... guess you can go all crazy, hope this is
supported by the library!

> Christof