Very interesting. I need to investigate in more depth. > The work-in-progress can be seen in Python's SVN sandbox: >> http://svn.python.org/view/sandbox/trunk/decimal-c/ beelzebub$svn checkout http://svn.python.org/view/sandbox/trunk/decimal-c/ svn: PROPFIND request failed on '/view/sandbox/trunk/decimal-c' svn: PROPFIND of '/view/sandbox/trunk/decimal-c': Could not read chunk size: connection was closed by server. (http://svn.python.org) Regards, Nick Maclaren, University of Cambridge Computing Service, New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England. Email: nmm1 at cam.ac.uk Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679