Quad-float math library: licence question

[Toon Moene]

Jerry DeLisle wrote:

> On 08/14/2010 08:20 AM, Steve Kargl wrote:

>> On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 01:23:03PM +0200, Toon Moene wrote:
>>>
>>> One obvious question I see coming is "why can't you just *call* the
>>> binary128 routines in glibc ?", so I have to understand that bit first
>>> (otherwise I'm bound to get into a slow back-and-forth between you 
>>> and me).

>> glibc isn't the libc on many supported OS's, e.g.,
>> FreeBSd, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, ...

Yes, this is an excellent argument from Steve, which will then be 
ignored because the FSF (at least, RMS) maintains that the GNU project 
is about developing a *system*, not just individual parts that can be 
used as building blocks (e.g., on the various BSD variants).

As you see, the discussion is not about licenses, but about what you 
think the goal of the GNU project (and *therefore*, the goal of GCC) is.

> I am really beginning to like the separate new library idea! Lets just 
> do it!

Well, I tried to defend gfortran having its own run-time library (as 
most other compilers have) and have full control over it - but alas, I 
never got very far with that argument in the discussion about Richard 
Guenther's contribution, either.

So unless someone *really, really* wants me to reopen that issue on the 
SC mailing list, I'd rather refrain ...

Cheers,

-- 
Toon Moene - e-mail: toon@moene.org - phone: +31 346 214290
Saturnushof 14, 3738 XG  Maartensdijk, The Netherlands
At home: http://moene.org/~toon/; weather: http://moene.org/~hirlam/
Progress of GNU Fortran: http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.5/changes.html#Fortran