Why gmp is not in the standard library?

[Michael Hudson]

miki.tebeka at zoran.com (Miki Tebeka) writes:

> Hello All,
> 
> On a different thread Skip wrote:
> > Yes, you're right.  Starting at 2**1000 I found three safe primes quite
> > quickly.  Using my version I gave up waiting after seeing one safe prime
> > float by.
> 
> 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?

Licensing?  IIRC, GMP is GPL.

Also, possibly, portability.

Cheers,
mwh

-- 
34. The string is a stark data structure and everywhere it is
    passed there is much duplication of process.  It is a perfect
    vehicle for hiding information.
  -- Alan Perlis, http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/perlis-alan/quotes.html