Interesting observation. Do you think we should state the original
reasons for the fork? Bear in mind, some of these reasons are no
longer valid, e.g. GMP now has an open repository.

We also aren't releasing new versions under LGPL 2.1+ ourselves any
more. After extensive consultation we decided to switch to v3+. The
only exception is MPIR 1.2.x which is LGPL v2.1+. I don't know of
anyone who has volunteered to take on the project of extending this in
any way. It's our intention to fix any bugs found in it only. I
suppose this might generate some new releases, but only very minor
updates. It certainly isn't a focus for development.

I think we do make a pretty big fuss about MSVC support on our website
though. That will shortly change to MSVC 2010 support. We should also
be making a big fuss about 64 bit Windows assembly code, as that is
another feature of MPIR (note the Windows calling conventions differ
from the linux ones, so you have to modify the assembly code).

Remember that we forked GMP years ago. I'm not sure it is a wise idea
to state on the MPIR website what our original reasons for a fork
were. Wouldn't that merely be reopening old wounds?

I think the current ambitions of the MPIR project are all that really
matters and that is all stated pretty clearly. I'm sure we'd be happy
to reword if you think something should be added, though.

Bill.

On 24 May, 17:47, leif <not.rea...@online.de> wrote:
> On 24 Mai, 15:59, Bill Hart <goodwillh...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> > [...]
> > I *apologise unreservedly* for upsetting the GMP
> > developers. This flame war, whether well-intentioned or not, is much
> > to be regretted. It would have been better to simply state we forked
> > because we wished to support Windows development, have an open
> > repository and, at the time, continue with an LGPL v2.1+ licensed
> > library whilst GMP moved on with v3+, so that other v2+ projects had
> > time to assess v3+. That would have been more reasonable on our part.
> > We were naive in the extreme to not expect the hostile response we
> > got. This we regret deeply.
> > [...]
>
> The MPIR web site (http://www.mpir.org/#about) does not state this,
> especially not the motivation for the fork.
>
> -Leif
>
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