unsigned long long conversion

[Francois G. Dorais]

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005, Torbjorn Granlund wrote:

> <keith.briggs at bt.com> writes:
>
>   I have solved my own problem with this:
>
>   void mpz_set_uj(mpz_t x, unsigned long long y) {
>     mpz_import(x,sizeof(unsigned long long),-1,1,0,0,&y);
>   }
>
>   (but I still need the mpz_add_uj and mpz_mul_uj functions.)
>
> We cannot add "long long" accepting functions to the GMP user
> interface, since that is not part of the C89 standard, and is
> indeed not supported by a lot of compilers.

Hi Torbjörn

Though I read this list a lot, I usually keep quiet (mostly because you
do a fine job at expressing my opinion, but this is an exception.) However, I
think this is wrong: good features of C99 ought to be suported by GMP. I
used "ought" instead of "should" because the latter is a strong verb. GMP
should not support long long on platforms that make it difficult to work with
them, but it definitely should on platforms which do have good long long
support.

I might be wrong, but I think GMP should sometimes make a statement and
support "good stuff". I put "good stuff" in quotes because I think this is
what we should be discussing here (or where appropriate) instead of
workarounds.

I understand that this is not easy, and GMP's policies have been far from
disappointing in any respect --- nobody is perfect, but that's exactly as
far down the list GMP is, i.e. GMP is great!!!