Re: Floating Point?

[Peter S. Christopher]

As I mentioned in my last e-mail, I tried the python-approach and it does
give some nice performance enhancements. My problem with it is that it's
fairly awkward even for some relatively easy algorithms. I think (unless
anyone has any ideas;-}) it is as good as we'll get unless/until GUILE
becomes a compiled language. (In this later case, one could imagine
embedding special forms that allow fast array loops and other fancy
enhancments).  

Pete

On Tue, 9 Sep 2003, David Allouche wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 09, 2003 at 09:52:26AM +0200, address@hidden wrote:
> > No. Arbitrary precision is for integers (it's impossible to do general
> > arbitrary precision for reals). Floats in Guile are just machine floats
> > (properly wrapped as SCMs, which might make them a tad `slower', though).
> > 
> > If I see right, they are just machine doubles, referenced indirectly
> > through the SCM object (thus the unwrapping costs you a dereference).
> 
> Just an idea...
> 
> Python had a similar problem: the language overhead dominated
> computing time in number crunching applications. This problem was
> solved by the implementation of a fast (written in C) matrix crunching
> library. The basic idea is "to add 1000 FP numbers, add two matrices
> and let the looping be done in C instead of in Scheme". Of course, the
> usual collection of algebra is also a nice bonus.
> 
> Now, Python, though well known as a generally slow language is
> successfully used in many demanding number-crunching applications.
> 
> -- 
> David Allouche         | GNU TeXmacs -- Writing is a pleasure
> Free software engineer |    http://www.texmacs.org
>    http://ddaa.net     |    http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/texmacs
>    address@hidden  |    address@hidden
> TeXmacs is NOT a LaTeX front-end and is unrelated to emacs.
> 
> 
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