From: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 00:23:01 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: RE: Java bignum package
Message-ID: <199603161559.HAA03547@jobe.shell.portal.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
> Does Java have a run-time way to do
>         #if_exists library_X
>                 foo = library_X.method_a(bar, baz)
>         #else
>                 foo = library_Y.method_a(bar, baz)
>         #endif
> or equivalent?  This would let you distribute a slow pure-java library
> that's compatible to a native-mode library and use whichever you need.

Bill is referring to an announcement I made elsewhere about a bignum
package I am working on in Java.  Take a look at <URL:
http://www.portal.com/~hfinney/bignum/bigarithtest.html> to play with a
little interactive "calculator" I made with it.  You need a Java enabled
browser to use it.

I think Bill's idea is a good one but I will discuss it further on
coderpunks since it gets into some technical aspects of Java that may not
be of general interest.

Hal