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Diffstat (limited to '')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/what-is-libzahl.tex | 25 |
1 files changed, 19 insertions, 6 deletions
diff --git a/doc/what-is-libzahl.tex b/doc/what-is-libzahl.tex index e09d0bd..b0e80f5 100644 --- a/doc/what-is-libzahl.tex +++ b/doc/what-is-libzahl.tex @@ -57,8 +57,8 @@ it can still be improved. Furthermore, GNU MP cannot be used for robust applications. \item -LibTomMath is very slow, infact performance is not its -priority, rather its simplicit is the priority. Despite +LibTomMath is very slow, in fact performance is not its +priority, rather its simplicity is the priority. Despite this, it is not really that simple. \item @@ -73,8 +73,8 @@ philosophy.\footnote{\href{http://suckless.org/philosophy} {http://suckless.org/philosophy}} libzahl is simple, very fast, simple to use, and can be used in robust applications. Currently however, it does not support -multithreading, but it has better support multiprocessing -and distributed computing than its competitor. +multithreading, but it has better support for multiprocessing +and distributed computing than its competitors. Lesser ``competitors'' (less known) to libzahl include Hebimath and bsdnt. @@ -142,10 +142,10 @@ caught using {\tt setjmp}. This ensure that it can be used in robust applications, catching errors does not become a mess, and it minimises the overhead of catching errors. Errors are only checked when they can -occur, not also after each function-return. +occur, not also after each function return. Additionally, libzahl tries to keep the functions' -names simple and natural rather than techniqual or +names simple and natural rather than technical or mathematical. The names resemble those of the standard integer operators. For example, the left-shift, right-shift and truncation bit-operations in libzahl are called @@ -214,6 +214,19 @@ strictly necessary for it to be an CPU-intrinsic, but that would be favourable for performance.) \end{itemize} +Because of the prevalence of theses properties +in contemporary machines, and the utilisation of +these properties in software, especially software +for POSIX and popular platforms with similar +properties, any new general-purpose machine most +have these properties lest, it but useless with +today's software. Therefore, libzahl can make +the assumption that the machine has these +properties. If the machine does not have these +properties, the compiler must compensate for +these machines deficiencies, making it generally +slower. + These limitations may be removed later. And there is some code that does not make these assumptions but acknowledge that it may be a case. On the other |