OK, I made a little bit of a change to the "about" section of the MPIR website. It now has:
"MPIR is an open source multiprecision integer (bignum) library forked from the <a href="http://gmplib.org/";>GMP (GNU Multi Precision)</a> project. It consists of much code from past GMP releases, in combination with much original contributed code." I doubt that addresses the concern you had, but it is, in my opinion, clearer and simpler than what we had. In particular I removed the bit about originally being a fork of GMP 4.2.1 (which was LGPL v2+), etc. I don't think that information is particularly useful or serving any definite purpose any more, though there wasn't anything particularly wrong with it. But again, I'm happy to change something if it isn't clear, or perhaps I should say that the new MPIR webmaster will (I've just been transferring credentials over for that). Bill. On 24 May, 18:43, Bill Hart <goodwillh...@googlemail.com> wrote: > 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 > > > -- > > To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com > > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to > > sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > > For more options, visit this group > > athttp://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel > > URL:http://www.sagemath.org > > -- > To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to > sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel > URL:http://www.sagemath.org -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
