2**HUGENUMBER Why not optimise it?

[Mike C. Fletcher]

 > Cheer up!
Thanks, I did.

I'm not particularly attached to the idea of optimising 2**x for large 
values of x (never actually used it myself), or even generic large-int 
multiplication.  I was just hoping for some resulting discussions of 
algos for speeding up multiplication, optimising big integers (e.g. 
shared storage or the like), and generally bringing the "fun place to 
learn about programming" atmosphere back to the list.

So far only Karatsuba is on the table (that was fun, maybe someone will 
want to play with the Python version I just posted).  Apparently the 
area of long-int-optimisation is just too well-trod to elicit much 
interest among the general populace.

Tim's rather busy these days.  I suppose the days of timbot postings 
that take 2 hours to read (what with tracking down all the references 
given and learning exotic CS concepts) are a thing of the past.  Still a 
fun person, but now more of an adult figure, distant, authoritative :o) 
;) .  Life continues on.  Someday I too will need to leave 
Never-Never-Land, but darn it, I'll fight it all the way.

I still think it's all a plot by that dratted Wendy Darling!
Mike

Christian Tismer wrote:
> Mike C. Fletcher wrote:
...
> I hereby encourage you to write that in the best
> way you can, since I know of a Python branch
> that will happily adopt any short and sensible optimization.
> I can contribute a bunch to this, too.
> 
...
> Viruses pretending to be real emails are becoming
> a problem. This one was just simple to detect:
> The real Timbot would either implement it in less
> bytes than the text of this response, or propose
> to provide an appropriate optional extension mechanism
> for special optimization modules.
...
_______________________________________
   Mike C. Fletcher
   http://members.rogers.com/mcfletch/