[Maxima] bfloat; arbitrary precision floating point arithmetic; speed relative to GMP,gmpy

[Bartlett, Charles S.]

Please answer:
 
- the largest floating point (or big floating point) number that Maxima
can handle is ~ 1.797e308 - correct? bfloat only allows changing the
number of digits of precision, not increasing the exponent beyond 308?
 
- Maxima can do arbitrary precision floating point arithmetic, within
the bounds (+- 2.225073858507201e-308, +- 1.797693134862316e+308) [ieee
754 64-bit bounds] ?
 
- any idea on the speed comparison between running equivalent
operations in Maxima vice using GMP or gmpy?
 
 
Thanks again for your replies


	 

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