Ok, so just to summarize should anyone bring up this same issue again
and come upon this thread:
* Decimal literals are a possibly good idea, but a fast C
implementation with a Python-compatible license (which as of this
writing does not yet exist) would be a necessary prerequisite
* Making decimals the default instead of floats would be controversial
to say the least and would definitely require further
analysis+discussion
Cheers,
Chris
--
Follow the path of the Iguana...
http://rebertia.com
On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 3:02 AM, Chris Rebert
On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 2:50 AM, Raymond Hettinger
wrote: From: "Raymond Hettinger"
Last time I looked, the existing C implementations out there were license compatible with Python.
That should have said "incompatible".
decNumber is available under the ICU License, which seems to be a variant of the original BSD license. Depending on exactly how the acknowledgement clause is interpreted (IANAL), it seems like it might be compatible. If not, IBM, which has copyright on decNumber, seems to have a fairly pro-open-source stance historically; perhaps if asked nicely by the community, they would be willing to relicense decNumber under the revised BSD license (a very minor change vs. the ICU License), which would certainly be compatible with Python's licensing policy.
Or maybe there exists another library that's already compatible. Perhaps I'll investigate.
But the key here is we should first determine whether people want decimal to be built-in and have a literal. Once that's established, then the details as to implementing that should be investigated. But yes, practicality and feasibility certainly are factors in all this.
Cheers, Chris
-- Follow the path of the Iguana... http://rebertia.com