[SciPy-Dev] Accuracy of single-precision FFT

[Robert Kern]

On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 10:49, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 10:44, Sturla Molden <sturla at molden.no> wrote:
>> Den 25.06.2010 17:10, skrev Robert Kern:
>>> There is an explicit exception in the GPL for system runtime libraries.
>>
>> Then what constitues a 'system runtime'?
>
> C runtimes, for the most part. Things normally distributed as part of
> the operating system.

Specifically, from the GPLv3:

"""
The “System Libraries” of an executable work include anything, other
than the work as a whole, that (a) is included in the normal form of
packaging a Major Component, but which is not part of that Major
Component, and (b) serves only to enable use of the work with that
Major Component, or to implement a Standard Interface for which an
implementation is available to the public in source code form. A
“Major Component”, in this context, means a major essential component
(kernel, window system, and so on) of the specific operating system
(if any) on which the executable work runs, or a compiler used to
produce the work, or an object code interpreter used to run it.
"""

So if Python were GPL-incompatible, that would be fine being the
object code interpreter used to run the GPLed program. msvcr90.dll is
also fine being a major essential component of the compiler used to
produce the work.

numpy is not one of these things.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless
enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as
though it had an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco