OT: PHP BCMath slowness

[Kurt Raschke]

Replying to the list to summarize:

There were issues in my code which made it even slower than it should  
have been; those issues notwithstanding, BCMath is still rather  
slow.  In particular, systems without bcpowmod() (that is, anything  
below PHP 5.0.0) pose a special challenge, as bcmod(bcpow()) is not  
an acceptable substitute for bcpowmod.  It would appear that GMP is  
the best mechanism for bigint manipulation in PHP.  While it's not  
bundled (as BCMath is), I can't see why a host wouldn't offer GMP in  
PHP.

Thanks to all who responded for their assistance and advice,

Kurt