This module wraps the MPFR library functions.

The MPFR library is a C library for multiple-precision floating-point
computations with exact rounding (also called correct rounding). It
is based on the GMP multiple-precision C library.

The main goal of MPFR is to provide a library for multiple-precision
floating-point computation which is both efficient and has a 
well-defined semantics. It copies the good ideas from the
ANSI/IEEE-754 standard for double-precision floating-point
arithmetic (53-bit mantissa).

It also offers a wide range of trig, log, and other functions, and
constants.

MPFR, like GMP, is free. It is distributed under the
GNU Lesser General Public License (GNU Lesser GPL).

Because this module wraps the MPFR functions, it requires that both
the GMP C library and the MPFR C library have been installed.

For the GMP library see:
http://swox.com/gmp

For the MPFR library see:
http://www.mpfr.org
Do not use the (outdated) MPFR library source that ships with the
GMP source.

Math::MPFR-1.04 to 1.07 require MPFR-2.1.x - and you'll get errors
if you try to build against an earlier or later version of the MPFR
library.

Math::MPFR-1.08 on require MPFR-2.2.x - and you'll get errors if
you try to build against an earlier version of the MPFR library.

To build this module you need perl 5.6.0 or later. I'm not sure of all
the requirements to get it to build with earlier versions of perl, but
it's definite that the XS code relating to operator overloading will
not compile with perl versions prior to 5.6.

Build in the usual way:

 perl Makefile.PL
 make
 make test
 make install

When building this module, the following files from the GMP and MPFR
libraries will need to be accessible:

 gmp.h
 mpfr.h
 mpf2mpfr.h
 the import library files libgmp and libmpfr ('.a' or '.lib')

If those files are in a location where your compiler does not find
them by default, then instead of running 'perl Makefile.PL', you'll
need to run:

perl Makefile.pl INC="-I/path/to/gmp_include -I/path/to/mpfr_includes"
 LIBS="-L/path/to/mpfr_lib -lmpfr -L/path/to/gmp_lib -lgmp"

(Alternatively you could copy the requisite files to a location where
the compiler *does* find them by default - which was the option I
chose on Win32.)

If you use a dynamic build, then the shared library files
('.dll' or '.so') need to be accessible to the system.

Win32 pre-compiled binaries (with installation instructions) of
this module can be found at:
http://www.kalinabears.com.au/w32perl/math_gnump.html .