New "feature" request

[Kevin Ryde]

"J. Foug" <jim_fougeron at yahoo.com> writes:
>
> I would love some interface (function(s) or data objects), which
> reported certain "build envirionment" information.

That idea has come up once or twice before, but I don't think it's
excited much interest.  We probably prefer programs are written to
what's documented, and left at that.

> I have wanted
> something like this for a while but never asked. With the recent
> anouncement of the FFT problem, it has again risen up as an issue.

It may or may not be a problem in 4.1.2.  It looks doubtful, but we
don't have a failing case.  It was definitely a bug in the current
unreleased development sources, but 4.1.2 is subtly different.  If
only the author of that code would deign to review it :-(.

If it turns out to be a bug the suggestion would probably be to run a
case provoking it, rather than enquiring about the configuration
options.  Or if we make a point release then just demand a new enough
gmp for all users.

> 2.  If alloca (or malloc) are used.

This certainly can be a problem.  Lobby Torbjorn to consider what
Niels M suggested for malloc on "big enough" blocks, thereby keeping
stack usage under control.  :)

> 4.  Tuning values (basecase, karatusba, toom-n, fft, ...)

Hopefully such things are merely optimizations and won't affect
anything.

> Yes, some of the above IS available in the header files.  However, I
> currently provide many prebuild Win32 DLL's of GMP (I build about 10
> different libgmp-3.dll's for different CPU's)

The next release will have a scheme of run-time detection and
selection of low level routines, which may help.

> Before, I wanted these data to simply
> be able to "nag" the user, due to non-optimal GMP (of course
> providing a way to allow the user to turn off the nagging).

Oh, well, we've always hoped anyone who cares enough would take the
trouble to do what's necessary.