[Python-Dev] Comparing heterogeneous types

[Andrew Koenig]

> Well, even if for comparisons we treat floats as if they were exact,
> for other purposes I want to keep the association of "float" with
> "inexact" and "int/long" with "exact", and I'd rather not return an
> "exact" result from an operation involvin an "inexact" operand.

Agreed.

> (The alternative, introducing exactness as a separate concept from
> representation, is better in theory but in practice just complicates
> matters needlessly.)

Also agreed.

However, I'm thinking less about exactness than I am about choosing the more
accurate of two possible representations for the result.

For example, in principle it should be possible to guarantee that x+0.0 == x
for all numeric values of x.  The unanswered question in my mind is whether
such a guarantee carries other undesirable properties along with it.

Incidentally, right now I am leaning toward the believe that such a
guarantee *does* carry other undesirable properties along with it.  For
example, consider 0L + 1e300.  It is clear that in principle, no accuracy is
lost by returning the result of this addition as a long.  It is equally
clear that in practice, it would be very slow.