[Python-Dev] Revised decimal type PEP

[Guido van Rossum]

> > I'm trying to understand how a decimal number context would work.
> > Is the context a variable and/or flag that defines the rounding
> > rules and precision of a number when it is used in a calculation?
> 
> Yes -- I believe advanced HP calculators have such functionality.  So
> does IEEE 754 for binary floating point.

I forgot: also which exceptional conditions raise exceptions, and a
bunch of (resettable?) state flags that tell you whether the last
calculation did certain things like lose precision or overflow etc.

I know nothing about this stuff, but Tim talks about it a lot and I
seem to learn by osmosis. :-)

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)