These routines compute the Pochhammer symbol (a)_x = \Gamma(a + x)/\Gamma(a). The Pochhammer symbol is also known as the Apell symbol and sometimes written as (a,x). When a and a+x are negative integers or zero, the limiting value of the ratio is returned.
These routines compute the logarithm of the Pochhammer symbol, \log((a)_x) = \log(\Gamma(a + x)/\Gamma(a)).
These routines compute the sign of the Pochhammer symbol and the logarithm of its magnitude. The computed parameters are result = \log(|(a)_x|) with a corresponding error term, and sgn = \sgn((a)_x) where (a)_x = \Gamma(a + x)/\Gamma(a).