naras@stat.fsu.edu (B. Narasimhan) (02/02/90)
Announcing UBASIC Version 7.25
------------------------------
UBASIC version 7.25 is now available for public distribution. The previous
version in circulation was 7.20.
To those who aren't familiar with UBASIC, it is a multiprecision package
that runs on IBM PC's. It is written by the Japanese number-theorist
Dr. Yuji Kida. A review by Prof. Walter Neumann appears in
"Computers and Matematics," May/June 1989, Vol 36, Number 5.
We, at FSU, prefer it over Maple because of its more modern algorithms for
testing primality. Further, it turns in some fantastic times on an ordinary
PC.
***********************************************************************
To receive a copy, just send a mail message to me at
naras@stat.fsu.edu
***********************************************************************
The update report follows.
---------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE REPORT for UBASIC 7.25 Jan. 2,1990
---------------------------------------------------------
Warning
-------
The parameter passing of UBasic had a weak point(almost
nearly a BUG!).
Sample:
10 A=1:gosub *X(&A):print A:end
20 *X(&C)
30 local A
40 C=2
50 return
What wll be the result of 'print A' in the line10?
The expected result may be '2' but UBasic wil give '1'.
The reason is that 'local A' in the line30 hides the old
value of A and restores it to A by 'return' in the line50.
Thus the value set to A by 'C=2' is canceled when 'return'ed.
In the current version 7.25, you cannot do like above.
The program stops at the line 30.
Bugs
----
A function Factorial gave an illegal value for factorial(0).
(try this A=123456789:? factorial(0))
Advance Announcement
------- ------------
We are now preparing a new version, version 8, which includes
the arithmetic of the rational numbers, manipulation of texts,
and etc. The complete version will be released in April,1990.
-B. Narasimhan
naras@stat.fsu.edunaras@stat.fsu.edu (B. Narasimhan) (02/06/90)
Advance apologies for this, but I am in a jam. Many of you have requested a copy of UBASIC 7.25. I have an automatic mailing scheme set up for this purpose, but our mailer it seems to have delivery problems. I do not know the reason and I therefore request that prospective users wait for some time (possibly a day or two) for me to upload the package to SIMTEL20. (You guessed it, I am having problems with that too.) I'll post a message to that effect soon. Thanks for your patience. -B. Narasimhan naras@stat.fsu.edu