Re: [Ocaml-lib-devel] Extending big_int

[Janne H. <jjh...@gm...>]

> Not really sure to be honest.
>=20
> In the code I was originally writing I kept on having to define
> constants I was using at the top level - to avoid having to frequently
> write '(big_int_of_int 2)' all over the place.  Whether it makes a
> real difference or not I don't know.

The reason I was asking, is that the majority of the API consists of
these constants and IMHO brings some redundancy into the API.  By
removing these constants we would also nullify the need to argue about
which constants in the range -100..100 are the most precious to
developers ;)

If there's any concern about the speed of 'big_int_of_int', perhaps it
could be optimized by having big_int representations of range
-128..128 stored in an array and looking these up in case the input
parameter falls into this range.  If the input parameter is out of
this range, then the generic 'big_int_of_int' would be used.

Best regards,
Janne