This library implements arithmetic and logical operations over
arbitrary-precision integers.
The module is simply named "Z". Its interface is similar to that of the
Int32, Int64 and Nativeint modules from the OCaml standard library, with some
additional functions. See the file z.mlip for documentation.
The implementation uses GMP (the GNU Multiple Precision arithmetic library) to
compute over big integers. However, small integers are represented as unboxed
Caml integers, to save space and improve performance. Big integers are
allocated in the Caml heap, bypassing GMP's memory management and achieving
better GC behavior than e.g. the MLGMP library. Computations on small
integers use a special, faster path (coded in assembly for some platforms and
functions) eschewing calls to GMP, while computations on large integers use
the low-level MPN functions from GMP.
Arbitrary-precision integers can be compared correctly using OCaml's
polymorphic comparison operators (=, <, >, etc.).
Additional features include:
- a module Q for rationals, built on top of Z (see q.mli)
- a compatibility layer Big_int_Z that implements the same API as Big_int, but
uses Z internally
