* reorganize different variants of spartan and make direct snark more generic

* cargo fmt

* test: compute_path

* refactor: path computation

- Improve path concatenation by utilizing built-in `join` method

* refactor: replace `PartialEq` with derived instance

- Derive `PartialEq` for `SatisfyingAssignment` struct
- Remove redundant manual implementation of `PartialEq`

Cargo-expand generates:
```
        #[automatically_derived]
        impl<G: ::core::cmp::PartialEq + Group> ::core::cmp::PartialEq
        for SatisfyingAssignment<G>
        where
            G::Scalar: PrimeField,
            G::Scalar: ::core::cmp::PartialEq,
            G::Scalar: ::core::cmp::PartialEq,
            G::Scalar: ::core::cmp::PartialEq,
            G::Scalar: ::core::cmp::PartialEq,
            G::Scalar: ::core::cmp::PartialEq,
        {
            #[inline]
            fn eq(&self, other: &SatisfyingAssignment<G>) -> bool {
                self.a_aux_density == other.a_aux_density
                    && self.b_input_density == other.b_input_density
                    && self.b_aux_density == other.b_aux_density && self.a == other.a
                    && self.b == other.b && self.c == other.c
                    && self.input_assignment == other.input_assignment
                    && self.aux_assignment == other.aux_assignment
            }
        }
```

* refactor: avoid default for PhantomData Unit type

* refactor: replace fold with sum where applicable

- Simplify code by replacing `fold` with `sum` in various instances

* refactor: decompression method in sumcheck.rs

* refactor: test functions to use slice instead of vector conversion

* refactor: use more references in functions

- Update parameter types to use references instead of owned values in various functions that do not need them
- Replace cloning instances with references

* Improve performance of recursive

* Fix the test after rebase

* Fix CI/CD warnings

* Update benchmark to work with new interface of RecursiveSNARK

* Fix example to make sure step 1 is correct

* refactor: Removes unneeded pass-by value in verification

- Update function arguments to use borrowing instead of passing ownership

* Resolve the conflict with upstream branch

* refactor: Avoid extra input cloning in RecursiveSNARK::new

* Update criterion to 0.5.1 to prevent the panic with its plot

* Fix benchmark issue with new recursive_snark instance

* Fix CI/CD warning with

* refactor: Make mutation easier to observe

- Utilize mutable references to Points for better memory management

* chore: Downgrade clippy dependency for compatibility

---------

Co-authored-by: François Garillot <francois@garillot.net>

* chore: update to ff/group 0.13 and associated dependencies

Updates:
- zkcrypto/ff, zkcrypto/group to 0.13,
- bellperson to 0.25,
- pasta_curves to 0.5.1, and removes the fil_pasta_curves fork
- pasta-msm should no longer need a fork (WIP)

Adapts source in function, mostly for const usage and API updates.

* expose the portable feature of pasta-MSM

* update pointer to pasta-msm

* Clippy

---------

Co-authored-by: François Garillot <francois@garillot.net>

* a more optimal preprocessing SNARK

* update version

* cleanup; address clippy

* spark-based commitments to R1CS matrices

* small fixes

* checkpoint

* simplify further

* checkpoint

* gens --> ck

* update benches

* address clippy

* cleanup

* update version

make spartan generic over the evaluation engine

update version

disable Wasm CI check

* Clippy with Rust 1.67

* Clippy/Rustfmt with Rust 1.66.1

use a macro to remove redundant code

add a test case

* make ecc gadgets defined over Group rather than PrimeField

* use curve parameters from Group trait

* support for arbitrary arity for F

* revive MinRoot example

* revive tests

* revive ecdsa

* remove unused code

* use None instead of Some(1u32)

* revive benches

* fix clippy warning

* optimize MinRoot constraint system to not allocate unneeded advice variables

run with multiple MinRoot iterations per Nova step in a loop

* fix clippy warnings

* avoid creating commitments to zero vectors

* reduce the number of constraints in each iteration from 4 to 3

* rename methods for better clarity

* rename

* Bump version

* ecdsa signature proof

* use the library-provided default circuit

* small reorg

Co-authored-by: Srinath Setty <srinath@microsoft.com>

use a default implementation for step circuit

* support multiple iterations of MinRoot per Nova step

* small edits to println

* fix declaration

* add the MinRoot VDF example

* optimize a bit

* optimization and cleanup

* clippy

* add examples to CI

* use inbuilt pow_vartime