Multiple precision integers in the NIH Class Libraries

[Dean Schulze]

Alan McKenney writes:

>You could even do this example in FORTRAN; just do the arithmetic with
>INTEGER variables representing the number of cents (well, you'd have to
>have > 47 bits/integer -- e.g., a Cray or a 48-bit Burroughs machine.)


    A public domain C++ class library exists for multiple precision integers.
It is part of the NIH Class Libraries and was written for applications such
as computing the national debt.  The software is available on 2 diskettes for
about $16 from the publisher of __Data Abstraction and Object-Oriented
Programming in C++__ by Keith E.Gorlen, Sanford M. Orlow, and Perry S. Plexico,
(John Wiley, West Sussex, 1990).  It may also be available from an ftp site.
Contact Keith Gorlen (kgorlenaalw.nih.gov) for more information.

    Incidentally the aforementioned book is **the best** book I've seen on
C++.  It does assume a working knowledge of C, however.  Experienced C
programmers who want to learn C++ will, I believe, find Gorlen's book the
best way to get up to speed in C++.  (Forget about any book written by
Stroustrup or Lippman.  They seem to have mastered the art that is the
stock and trade of mathematicians:  making a straight-forward subject
incomprehensible.)  Programmers who don't have a working knowledge of C
and who want to learn C++ will find Bruce Eckel's books very valuable:
__Using C++__ and __C++ Inside and Out__.  The first of these two may
be out of print.


Dean Schulze