important change in mpfr

[Paul Zimmermann]

       Dear mpfr users,

we would like to warn you about an important change in the next version of
mpfr. Up from the next release (2.3.0) mpfr will use a decimal internal 
representation instead of a binary one. The main motivation for that change
is the fact that the revision of IEEE 754 (http://www.validlab.com/754R/)
will include decimal formats. We anticipate that in ten years, the main 
machine integer and floating-point formats will be in decimal, and the
current binary formats will soon become obsolete, and/or very slow.

We apologize for any problems mpfr users might have. Of course this will
break the binary compatibility of the library, but we promise a decimal
compatibility up from version 2.3.0.

We strongly request the GMP developers to anticipate that decimal change too.
This will boost all applications of GMP and MPFR to bank accounting.

For the mpfr team,
Paul Zimmermann