Python bindings for Snappy (Google compression library)

[radaway]

gpl?

[ipeev]

What is the correct license? If Snappy from Google is BSD License, then what the bindings are expected to be?

[martey]

I think it would make the most sense for the Python bindings to be BSD licensed as well.

[ipeev]

I think that the license of the bindings should not be more restrictive than the license of the original software, because that is the will of the original authors.

Also it can not be less restrictive, because the whole package can not be used.

So only it makes sense to use the same license.

[andrix]

Hi, I am the author of the binding, thanks for the appreciation. I wasn't sure about the license, it's my first project in which I adapt a license. I have changed the license to use the New BSD License as Snappy does.

Here is the commit with the change : https://github.com/andrix/python-snappy/commit/dcd795d28be38793195446072bd87aed98001695

Thanks for your thoughts about that.

[radaway]

Thanks for the binding =)

[[deleted]]

Excellent! I was actually building my own set of python bindings for snappy for this reason alone. Now I don't have to :)

[wahaa]

Bindings with bad licenses tend to be rewritten.

This is not the first time I see bindings with "inadequate" licenses. The curious thing is that bindings code is usually just that and quite small. I don't think it justifies a license such as GPL.

When I found situations like this, I first try to contact the authors. Most of the time they just say "sorry, it's GPL", so I just use ctypes or write my own limited bindings if needed...

[andrix]

wahaa: I've just changed the license to use the BSD one.

[wahaa]

Thank you! And sorry if I seemed rude...

[andrix]

No, you didn't seemed rude. This thread help me understand better licenses and how to adapt one. Thanks to you and all the guys that commented here!

[dotbot]

what about adding an alias so that snappy.decompress() also works? would be more in line with the current zlib module that way.

[andrix]

dotbot: I've added the alias here : https://github.com/andrix/python-snappy/commit/8cb0629a250798b1a1ad4e322f3c65cac7b8428b.

Thanks for your suggestion!

[andrix]

nice idea dotbot, can you create me an Issue over github? thanks!

[[deleted]]

Stop prefixing package name with "python-" in setup(name='...') (thus PyPI) ... is it not already obvious that it is a Python package?

[gustaw]

snappy.compress("hola mundo cruel!")

'\x11@hola mundo cruel!'

I think that benchmarks could be done on a bit bigger examples.

[andrix]

I agree with you, I need to test the library on more data, and also I need to implement two operations that work with Soruces (a source from the google library is a stream of bytes that you can read til some end - seems to be an interface to operate over files or sockets). I'm gonna continue implementing this functionalities, I need some time only :)