[Python-Dev] Re: Decimal type question [Prothon]

[Mark Hahn]

Forgive me if I'm being a pest, but no one has commented on the real reason
I asked the question.  What does everyone think of the idea of having these
three built-in numeric types?

1) An Int implemented with infinite precision integer (Python Longs) with
the constant/__str__ form of +-NN such as 0, -123, 173_394, etc.

2) A Decimal implemented with the .Net decimal float (or the IBM decimal if
the .Net decimal sucks too much) with the constant/__str__ form of +-NN.NN
such as 0.0, -123.0, 173_394.0, 173394.912786765, etc.

3) A binary Float implemented with the hardware floating point with the
constant/__str__ form of +-NN.NN+-eNN such as 0e0, -123e0, 173.39e+3,
2.35e-78, etc.

There would be no automatic conversion except the / operator would convert
from Int to Decimal and the Math module would convert Int and Decimal
values to Float for almost all functions (except simple ones like abs, min,
max).