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1.1     ! misho       1: BCMATH FAQ: 
        !             2: 
        !             3: 1) Why BCMATH?
        !             4: 
        !             5: The math routines of GNU bc become more generally useful in a
        !             6: library form.  By separating the BCMATH library from GNU bc,
        !             7: GNU bc can be under the GPL and BCMATH can be under the LGPL.
        !             8: 
        !             9: 2) Why BCMATH when GMP exists?
        !            10: 
        !            11: GMP has "integers" (no digits after a decimal), "rational numbers"
        !            12: (stored as 2 integers) and "floats".  None of these will correctly
        !            13: represent a POSIX BC number.  Floats are the closest, but will not
        !            14: behave correctly for many computations.  For example, BC numbers have
        !            15: a "scale" that represent the number of digits to represent after the
        !            16: decimal point.  The multiplying two of these numbers requires one to
        !            17: calculate an exact number of digits after the decimal point regardless
        !            18: of the number of digits in the integer part.  GMP floats have a
        !            19: "fixed, but arbitrary" mantissa and so multiplying two floats will end
        !            20: up dropping digits BC must calculate.
        !            21: