Contribution

[Jim Curry]

Hello:

I am a decent programmer, but I often make "rough and ready" or "good
enough" programs in order to get some answers quickly.  I don't usually
polish code as it needs to be done for a distribution.  The good news is
that I understand how to polish code for distribution.

I'm interested in computing logarithm, exponential, trig, and hyperbolic
functions.  I just think those are needed a lot of the time.  I have
prototyped several of the techniques from Borwein and Borwein.  They all
work nicely at the "breadboard" level.  So, it is reasonable to say that I
have a rough beginning already done in this area.

It is, of course, nothing but the most rough of all beginnings.  Lots of
adjustments need to be made and lots of testing needs to be done to get
something that would work smoothly with your Big Num library.

The truth is that I haven't even installed and learned to use your Big Num
Library yet.  I think it is very nice, from what I have seen, although I
don't always like the interfaces as much as I probably should.

My question is this:  Is this area---the area of elementary transcendental
functions---one that your project might wish to receive from a person like
me?  It is, you understand, quite possible that you already have more
sophisticated code available in your own workshops than I have put together
here.  So, anything I might give you might turn out to be unwelcome or
useless anyway.

If you don't have this area handled, it is, of course, possible that you
don't want this area in your software package.

Finally, there is some small possibility that you don't have this area
handled, that you might want some, and that you might be prepared to receive
(but not necessarily release) code capable of doing these calculations.  It
is very convenient to encapsulate much of this in C++ classes.  That, of
course, is not in the spirit of your project.  So, I would have a lot of
work to do to make it consistent for you.

I very much enjoy computations at unrestricted precision.  God puts no
limits on what He will do.  Why should we put limits where none really
exist?

Do you want that or not?

Regards,
Jim Curry
Cut Bank, MT