In comparison to gmp-ecm, pyecm has several advantages. First, it does not display any mathematical notation when factoring a number, making it more useful to those not familiar with factoring algorithms. It displays only factors. In addition, it displays ALL factors, unlike gmp-ecm, which displays the first factor it finds and lets the user find the rest. Showing all the factors again makes it more useful to a non-mathematical user.
Second, pyecm is much more portable than gmp-ecm. It is contained in a single python file and will run anywhere python and psyco do, without a recompilation needed. In addition, it is easy to understand (comparatively ;) ) and is less than 250 lines.
Finally, on all tests done (several in the 30-digit range), I have found pyecm to be faster than gmp-ecm in factoring numbers.
Hope this helps, Martin Kelly Martin Kelly wrote:
Dear mentors, * Package name : pyecm Version : 0.1 Upstream Author : Martin Kelly <aomighty@gmail.com> * URL : http://sourceforge.net/projects/pyecm/ * License : GPLv2 Section : Mathematics It builds these binary packages:pyecm - Factors large numbers (<= 50 digits) using ECM (Elliptic Curve Method)The package can be found at mentors.debian.net: - URL: http://mentors.debian.net/debian/pool/main/p/pyecm/ - dget http://mentors.debian.net/debian/pool/main/p/pyecm/pyecm_0.1-1.dsc pyecm is lintian and linda clean.This is my first package but I would love to start working with Debian as a package maintainer :).Thanks all, Martin Kelly