mpz_limbs interface

[Niels Möller]

Vincent Lefevre <vincent at vinc17.net> writes:

> Yes. If you want to differentiate between NaN and infinities:
> d != d is true only for NaN.

I'm looking at the definition of DOUBLE_NAN_INF_ACTION in gmp-impl.h.
Maybe it could be simplified to a single, unconditional, definition

#define DOUBLE_NAN_INF_ACTION(x, a_nan, a_inf)			\
  do {								\
    if (UNLIKELY ((x) - (x) != 0.0))				\
      {								\
        if ((x) != (x)) { a_nan; }				\
        else { a_inf; }						\
      }								\
  } while (0)

Does any of the current three definitions have any advantage over the
above portable one? I would hope that the above is

  * no slower then the _GMP_IEEE_FLOATS definition (which extracts the
    exponent via a union).

  * equivalent to the NOP definition for VAX; then x - x != 0.0 should be
    always false, and the compiler ought to know.

  * faster than the generic version, which implies a sequence of three
    (false) tests in the common case.

I'm tempted to 

1. Replace the DOUBLE_NAN_INF_ACTION macro.

2. Check in the mpn_set_d changes (possibly with smaller tweaks).

3. Make mpn_get_d public, and document both functions.

Ok? Or should this wait until after 5.2?

Ah, and about mpn_get_d. Maybe it would make sense to drop the sign
argument, and and use the sign of the size argument, or limit to
non-negative numbers only (it's trivial for the caller to negate the
output when desired).

Regards,
/Niels

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