[Python-Dev] proposal: add basic money type to the standard library

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Tue, 26 Feb 2002 15:58:57 -0500


> Currency for money is a bit like timezones for datetime,
> so it's a good idea, not to add it to the base type 
> interface. However, the interface should be extendable
> to include currency information.

Currency is much worse than timezones -- once you are interested in
exchange rates, you need to know *when* to calculate the exchange rate
(as well as other parameters such as which exchange rate).

So please let's keep the currency out of the money type; it's utterly
application dependent what to do with that information.

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