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Diffstat (limited to 'doc/what-is-libzahl.tex')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/what-is-libzahl.tex | 26 |
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/doc/what-is-libzahl.tex b/doc/what-is-libzahl.tex index dfaf9d3..0693437 100644 --- a/doc/what-is-libzahl.tex +++ b/doc/what-is-libzahl.tex @@ -27,14 +27,14 @@ Whilst this is almost none of the elements in {\bf Z}, it is substantially more than available using the intrinsic integer types in C. libzahl of course also implements functions for performing arithmetic operations over -integers represented using libzahl. Libraries such as -libzahl as called bigint libraries, big integer libraries, +integers represented using libzahl. Libraries such as +libzahl are called bigint libraries, big integer libraries, multiple precision integer libraries, arbitrary precision integer libraries,\footnote{`Multiple precision integer' and `arbitrary precision integer' are misnomers, precision is only relevant for floating-point numbers.} or bignum libraries, or any of the previous with `number' substituted -for `integer'. Some libraries that refer to themself bignum +for `integer'. Some libraries that refer to themselves as bignum libraries or any of using the word `number' support other number types than integers. libzahl only supports integers. @@ -44,8 +44,8 @@ number types than integers. libzahl only supports integers. \label{sec:Why does it exist?} libzahl's main competitors are GNU MP (gmp),\footnote{GNU -Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library} LibTomMath (ltm), -and TomsFastMath (tfm). All of these have problems: +Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library} LibTomMath (ltm), +TomsFastMath (tfm) and Hebimath. All of these have problems: \begin{itemize} \item @@ -65,6 +65,12 @@ this, it is not really that simple. TomsFastMath is slow, complicated, and is not a true big integer library and is specifically targeted at cryptography. + +\item +Hebimath is far from stable, some fundamental functions +are not implemented and some functions are broken. The +author thinks Hebimath is promising, but that many things +can be done better. \end{itemize} libzahl is developed under the suckless.org umbrella. @@ -89,7 +95,7 @@ followed by input parameters. The former variant is the conventional for C functions. The latter is more in style with primitive operations, pseudo-code, mathematics, and how it would look if the output was return. In libzahl, -the latter convention is used. That is, why write +the latter convention is used. That is, we write \begin{alltt} zadd(sum, augend, addend); @@ -116,8 +122,8 @@ versus $augend + addend \rightarrow sum$. \vspace{1ex} -libzahl, GNU MP, and Hebimath uses the output-first -convention. LibTomMath and TomsFastMath uses the +libzahl, GNU MP, and Hebimath use the output-first +convention. LibTomMath and TomsFastMath use the input-first convention. Unlike other bignum libraries, errors in libzahl are @@ -139,8 +145,8 @@ integer operators. libzahl is not recommended for cryptographic applications, it is not mature enough, and its author -does not have the necessary expertise. And in, -particular it does not implement constant time +does not have the necessary expertise. And in +particular, it does not implement constant time operations. Additionally, libzahl is not thread-safe. libzahl is also only designed for POSIX systems. |