patch in Python?

[Alex Martelli]

Gerhard Häring wrote:
        ...
>> Looking at the docs I don't see any features that gmpy doesn't have.
>> I think it would be better to use gmpy, which is widely used, has
>> assembly language optimizations for many cpu's, etc.
> 
> Probably, except one of the requirements is a BSD-ish license, as in the
> end this will be used for the NUMERIC type of pyPgSQL. If it's going to
> be useful for other purposes, that's a nice side-effect.

Both the "assembly language optimizations" and the LGPL license, of
course, are due to the underlying GMP library (which my gmpy just
wraps for Python consumption).  I'm not 100% sure I'm _required_ to
apply LGPL to gmpy (i.e., I'm not sure whether it's a derived work
of GMP, thus needing LGPL, or just an application that links with
GMP, in which case I could license gmpy any which way), but I _am_
quite sure I don't need the hassle and aggravation of fighting against
the folks who provided GMP (folks to which I feel quite grateful)
should they decide to disagree with my interpretation.  In other
words, were it just for me, I'd love to license gmpy in some more
Pythonic wise, but I'm not prepared to handle any legal and/or
political clash that might possibly ensue (color me yellow...).

Besides, even if gmpy were to be BSD-licensed, the underlying GMP
would no doubt remain LGPL, so, changing gmpy's license would be rather
useless per se (trying to rationalize my cowardice here...:-).


Alex