A rational proposal

[Jp Calderone]

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 12:29:10 -0600, Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org> wrote:
>"Raymond L. Buvel" <levub137 at wi.rr.com> writes:
> 
> > Mike Meyer wrote:
> >> PEP: XXX
> >> Title: A rational number module for Python
> > <snip>
> >
> > I think it is a good idea to have rationals as part of the standard
> > distribution but why not base this on the gmpy module
> > (https://sourceforge.net/projects/gmpy)?  That module already provides
> > good performance.  However, it does a few things that may not be good
> > ideas.
> 
> It wraps a third party package, which can't really be added to the
> standard libraray. The documentation for a rationa number package in
> Python should include a pointer to gmpy with a note about performance.
> 

  This is not true.  As evidence, see the following modules:

    readline
    _ssl
    _tkinter
    _curses, _curses_panel
    dbm, gdbm, _bsddb
    zlib
    pyexpat

  Not to mention the crazy, mega-platform specific modules like gl, 
nis, fm, sgi, and more.  Nor Python's tight dependency on another 
third party library, libc. ;)

  Note I am not advocating the use of gmpy (nor the avoidance of it), 
simply pointing out that there is ample precedent in the standard 
library for dependence on third party libraries.

  Jp