Importing the Gnu Multiple Precision Package (GMP) into Lisp, and implications for Functional Programming

Advocating the use of a Common Lisp as a central organizing environment for building scientific computing systems runs counter to the conventional wisdom, which suggests that languages like Fortran, C++, or even Java, are more suitable. We prefer Lisp based on its debugging features, interactivity, memory model, existing code-base for computer algebra and user interfaces, and for purposes of this paper, its ability to dynamically load modules written in other languages. GMP is an open-source highly-tuned library of programs for arbitrary precision integer, rational and floating-point arithmetic. It is easy to use it from Common Lisp in some ways but used in its most efficient form GMP conflicts with the dominant (functional) model of arithmetic in Lisp and similar languages. GMP may also require a delicate touch to interface with the storage allocation mechanisms in its host language (Lisp’s garbage collector). We discuss both these issues.