R devel - Sep 2004 - Guidance implementing high precision integers

Gracious Experts:

I am considering implementing extended precision integers as an R package, 
using wrappers to C functions.  My intent is to allow, say, 4-word length 
integer values supporting basic arithmetic and a few number theoretic functions.

At this stage of the game, I am looking to you for guidance about how best to 
approach this sort of thing with R.  Ideally, I'd like to use S4 style 
classes on the R side.

What is the most direct, fail-safe approach?

Thank you for any assistance,

Jeffrey A. Sarnoff

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