On Fri, Jun 04, 1999 at 10:36:39AM +0000, Brian J Beesley wrote:
> message that I didn't think it would be contentious. After all, the
> mathematical theory behind the Lucas-Lehmer test is "old hat", the
> source code for several implementations is available for public
> inspection, and several types of off-the-shelf consumer hardware
> could be used to run the verification in a reasonable time.
I would guess that although the EFF was expecting a Mersenne prime to be the
first to meet the million-digit criteria, they added the publication clause to
protect themselves if the first million-digit prime were of a less well known
form. In the case of Mersenne primes, with the theory and implementations well
established, the actual publication ends up being merely a formality. Of course,
this is just my opinion. :)
Congratulations to George, Scott, and the mystery prover. It's been too long
since our last one.
Greg Hewgill
http://www.hewgill.com
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