MPFR version info

[Torbjorn Granlund]

Patrick Pelissier <Patrick.Pelissier at loria.fr> writes:

  > GMP has the global constant 'gmp_version' which provides the GMP version 
  > number. Is there a comparable constant with MPFR ? If not, how does one 
  > determine the version of MPFR (from within a program) ?
  
   The CVS version has the function mpfr_version () which returns
  a constant string which is the version number at running time.

Why is it a function, and not a (read-only) variable as in
GMP?

--
Torbjörn