Primex - 2.1command line tool to search for prime & Fibonacci numbers |
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Works, but why? 



- Version: 2.1, 4/1/2004 11:03AM PST
dchoby98
Most Recent Replies: View All 1 Replies
- Primex
"The prime-search algorithm relies on the fact that every non-prime number, can be expressed as the product of smaller prime numbers."
In other words, every composite number is a product of primes. Brilliant. This also implies that Primex uses a ridicuously inefficient prime-testing method (i.e. test factorization), as opposed to various number-theoretic primality tests which are considerably faster. Miller-Rabin comes quickly to mind.
"Primex uses a scanning algorithm, that allows it to trace every prime number it scans trough."
Once it's found a prime, it remembers that it has found that. A basic optimization, nothing to brag about.
"Primex is an essential tool for mathematicians, physicists, encryption scientists, biologists and information scientists."
If you only need a few small primes or fibonacci numbers, and don't need to do any more interesting math, this might be a valid point. But if you want larger primes, larger fibonacci numbers, or want to find anything other than those two (as is quite likely), you need something far more powerful, such as Mathematica or Maple.
So, this program fills a niche, and does what it says, but the description is ridiculously overblown.