[Python-Dev] a slightly more coherent case

[gvwilson@nevex.com]

Here's a longer, and hopefully more coherent, argument for using the
divided-by sign in P3K:

1. If P3K source is allowed to be Unicode, then all Python programming
   systems (custom-made or pre-existing) are going to have to be able
   to handle more than just 1970s-vintage 7-bit ASCII.  If that support
   has to be there, it seems a shame not to make use of it in the language
   itself where that would be helpful. [1,2]

2. As I understand it, support for (int,int)->float division is being
   added to help people who think that arithmetic on computers ought to
   behave like arithmetic did in grade 4.  I have no data to support this,
   but I expect that such people will understand the divided-by sign more
   readily than a forward slash. [3]

3. I also expect, again without data, that '//' vs. '/' will lead to as
   high a proportion of errors as '==' vs. '='.  These errors may even
   prove harder to track down, since the result is a slightly wrong answer
   instead of a state change leading (often) to early loop termination or
   something equally noticeable.

Greg

[1] I'm aware that there are encoding issues (the replies to my first post
    mentioned at least two different ways for "my" divided-by sign to
    display), but this is an issue that will have to be tackled in general
    in order to support Unicode anyway.

[2] I'd be grateful if everyone posting objections along the lines of,
    "But what about emacs/vi/some other favored bit of legacy technology?"
    could also indicate whether they use lynx(1) as their web browser,
    and/or are sure that 100% of the web pages they have built are
    accessible to people who don't have bit-mapped graphics.  I am *not*
    trying to be inflammatory, I just think that if a technology is taken
    for granted as part of one tool, then it is legitimate to ask that it
    be taken for granted in another.

[3] Please note that I am not asking for a multiplication sign, a square
    root sign, or any of APL's mystic runes.