Please note: cdecimal has been integrated into CPython 3.3, where it supersedes the pure Python version: import decimal will automatically import the C version. Performance has been improved further, so the cdecimal version shipped with CPython 3.3 is significantly faster for numerical workload than cdecimal-2.3. If you need maximum decimal computing performance, you should solely use that Python version.
cdecimal is a fast drop-in replacement for the decimal module in Python’s standard library for Python versions 2.5 up to 3.2. It provides a complete implementation of Mike Cowlishaw/IBM’s General Decimal Arithmetic Specification.
Since cdecimal is compatible with decimal, the official documentation is valid: http://docs.python.org/library/decimal.html
For the few remaining differences, see: http://www.bytereef.org/mpdecimal/doc/cdecimal/index.html
NOTE: The safest way to get cdecimal is to use the download URL and verify the sha256sum:
d737cbe43ed1f6ad9874fb86c3db1e9bbe20c0c750868fde5be3f379ade83d8b cdecimal-2.3.tar.gz
Do not necessarily trust the above checksum. Use a search engine to ensure that it is identical to the one in the release announcement of cdecimal-2.3.
