This is the README file for the GAP package "Float"
This package implements floating-point numbers, with arbitrary precision, based on the C libraries MPFR, MPFI, MPC and CXSC.
The package is distributed in source form, and does not require anything else than a running GAP 4.7 or later. For updates, check the package website at https://github.com/gap-packages/float/.
To use the package, your must first compile it; this is done by invoking
./configure and then make in the main directory (where this file is).
./configure may be invoked with arguments --with-gaproot, --with-gaparch
and CONFIGNAME to specify the location and variant of GAP installed.
By default, the configuration script searches ../.. and /usr/local/src/gap.
This package requires external libraries, at least one of mpfr, mpfi, mpc or
cxsc. If they are already on your system, you may enable them with the
switches --with-mpfr=xxx, --with-mpfi=xxx, --with-mpc=xxx and
--with-cxsc=xxx, specifying at which prefix they are installed (if xxx is
absent, the default prefixes will be searched). If you do not wish to
install them, you may disable their inclusion using --without-cxsc etc.
If the package cannot find them, they will be downloaded and compiled in
the subdirectory extern. You may also force this behaviour (e.g. if your
system has outdated versions of the libraries) by passing extern to the
switches --with-mpfr etc.
They will be downloaded from the following locations:
- http://www.mpfr.org/mpfr-current/mpfr-3.1.1.tar.bz2
- https://gforge.inria.fr/frs/download.php/30129/mpfi-1.5.1.tar.bz2
- http://www.multiprecision.org/mpc/download/mpc-1.0.1.tar.gz
- http://www2.math.uni-wuppertal.de/~xsc/xsc/cxsc/cxsc-2-5-3.tar.gz
- http://xpujol.net/fplll/libfplll-4.0.1.tar.gz
Once the package has been compiled, it may be used within GAP by typing
LoadPackage("Float");
The "Float" package banner should appear on the screen. New floating-point handlers may be then set by typing
SetFloats(MPFR,1000);
to have 1000-bits floating-point numbers. For details on how to use the Float
package, please consult the documentation. It is in the doc subdirectory,
see manual.pdf.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program, in the file COPYING. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
Laurent Bartholdi, Göttingen, 6 January 2014