initial commit

Signed-off-by: Mattias Andrée <maandree@kth.se>

1 files changed, 30 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/README b/README
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce2ad09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+NAME
+	libzahl - big integer library
+
+ETYMOLOGY
+	The bold uppercase Z which represents the set of
+	all integers is derived from the german word 'zahlen',
+	whose singular is 'zahl'.
+
+DESCRIPTION
+	libzahl is a C library for arbitrary size integers,
+	that aims to be usable for rubust programs, and be
+	fast.
+
+	libzahl will accomplish this by using long jumps
+	when an error is detected, rather than letting the
+	caller also perform a check. This shall make the
+	code in the user program cleaner too. libzahl will
+	use dedicated temporary bitnum integers whether
+	possible, and necessary, for its internal calculations.
+	libzahl will not deallocate allocations, but rather
+	cache them for reuse.
+
+	With the exception of functions working with strings,
+	all output parameters are before the input parameters.
+
+RATIONALE
+	GMP MP cannot be used for rubust programs. LibTomMath
+	is too slow, probably because of all memory allocations,
+	and has an nonintuitive API. Hebimath is promising, but
+	I think it can be done better.