Why gmp is not in the standard library?

[Tim Churches]

On Thu, 2004-01-15 at 21:11, Miki Tebeka wrote:

> Which made me think why Python don't use gmp as it's primary math
> package - we'll get fast results, a lot of number types and much more.
> 
> Can't think of any reason why Python is implementing its own long
> numbers...
> Can you enlighten me?

As others have said, re-engineering Python to use GMP numeric types
would be a huge undertaking. But I think there is a case to be made for
including gmpy as a library in the standard Python distribution. It is
very small and doesn't take long to compile, but is incredibly useful.

Of course, someone would need to prepare Python-style docs, and someone
would need to track GMP development and update the version included with
Python at each release (the current gmpy developers perhaps) - thus I
suspect it is more a resourcing issue than anything else. However, if
some dead wood is ever removed from the Python standard library, I would
love to see gmpy take its place. Thanks to the gmpy (and GMP) developer,
BTW.

-- 

Tim C

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