Re: Arbitrary Precision Arithmetic Package for Common Lisp

[wfs@nicolas.ma.utexas.edu (Bill Schelter)]

I did the calculation (expt 2 40000) in the current akcl (615) and in the
original kcl (jun 1987) on a sun 3/280.

In akcl before starting I did,

(setq si::*multiply-stacks* 4)

Then to do (expt 2 40000):
                                    akcl 615         kcl
Calculation time:                  1.30 sec          7.80 sec
Display calculation time:          28.70 sec         135 ++ seconds

++ kcl was not able to print the number out in 135 seconds but got a value
stack overflow.  An advantage of akcl is that you can grow the stacks ahead
of time if you know you will be doing a large calculation.   With kcl you
had to recompile and relink the saved image to adjust the stacks.

Bill Schelter

ps:   It is clear that the display computation could be more efficient,
but we have not yet paid too much attention to it.

Bill