[Python-Dev] g_ascii_strtod/snprintf and Python

[Christian Reis]

Hello Alex,

    how's it going? I'm assuming Johan has talked to you about this
issue we're pursuing on python-dev to make Python LC_NUMERIC-safe (if
not, the PEP I wrote is attached, and it has details and a number of
references). 

Basically, we're changing Python to stop depending on having the C
locale set for the LC_NUMERIC category -- the parser and Int/Float and
String objects currently rely on glibc versions of strtod/atof and
snprintf, and this is a problem specifically for C extensions that link
to python in runtime (which depend on LC_NUMERIC being set correctly to
be able to localize correctly).

Gustavo Carneiro started work on a patch to implement this a while back.
We'd really like to use (and his prototype patch indeed does) the
LC_NUMERIC-safe versions that you wrote for glib, but python-dev has
been clear that they really need the original author to contribute the
code (and sign the PSF license). So I'm writing to ask if you'd be kind
enough to help us out and comply with the steps required to contribute
the code.

Basically (AFAICT, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong) this
means checking out

    http://www.python.org/psf/psf-contributor-agreement.html

and filling out the Python Contributor Agreement, and mailing it in to
the PSF. This would allow you to check in the code in question (at which
point we would be a lot closer to having this fixed for good.)

[PS: Does anyone on python-dev (Martin, Barry perhaps?) have any further
comments on the process that we should go through to move on with this?]

Thanks for any help you can provide us. Take care,
--
Christian Reis, Senior Engineer, Async Open Source, Brazil.
http://async.com.br/~kiko/ | [+55 16] 261 2331 | NMFL