bigfloat

[Denis Koroskin]

On Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:54:13 +0400, Paul D. Anderson <paul.d.removethis.anderson at comcast.andthis.net> wrote:

> Denis Koroskin Wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:54:02 +0400, Frank Torte  
>> <frankt123978 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Paul D. Anderson Wrote:
>> >
>> >> Is there an active project to develop arbitrary-precision floating
>> >> point numbers for D?
>> >>
>> >> I've got a little extra time at the moment and would like to  
>> contribute
>> >> if I can. I've done some work in floating point arithmetic and would  
>> be
>> >> willing to start/complete/add to/test/design/etc. such a project.  
>> What
>> >> I hope NOT to do is to re-implement someone else's perfectly adequate
>> >> code.
>> >>
>> >> If no such project exists I'd like to start one. If there are a bunch
>> >> of half-finished attempts (I have one of those), let's pool our  
>> efforts.
>> >>
>> >> I know several contributors here have a strong interest and/or
>> >> background in numerics. I'd like to hear inputs regarding:
>> >>
>> >> a) the merits (or lack) of having an arbitrary-precision floating  
>> point
>> >> type
>> >>
>> >> b) the features and functions that should be included.
>> >>
>> >> Just to be clear -- I'm talking about a library addition here, not a
>> >> change in the language.
>> >>
>> >> Paul
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> > When you can use a number in D that is more than the number of atoms  
>> in
>> > the known universe why would you want a bigger number?
>>
>> I'd like to calculate pi with up to 20000 valid digits. Or a square  
>> root of 2 with the same precision. How do I do that?
>
>
> I've got some Java code that will do that -- not here with me at work.  
> Of course, it uses Java's BigDecimal class -- that's what D doesn't seem  
> to have.
>
> Paul
>

That was exactly my point - we need some kind of a Java BigDecimal class for such arithmetics in D.

So my verdict: go for it!