[Python-Dev] Type of range object members

[Guido van Rossum]

On 8/15/06, James Y Knight <foom at fuhm.net> wrote:
> On Aug 15, 2006, at 7:06 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> >> There's no particular reason that a short int must be able to store
> >> the entire range of C "long", so, as many bits can be stolen from it
> >> as desired.
> >
> > There isn't? Actually a lot of APIs currently assumen that.
>
> I thought we were talking about Py3k. *IF* the idea is to integrate
> both short/long ints into a single type, with only an internal
> distinction (which is what is being discussed), all those APIs are
> broken already. The particular internal division of the new int
> object between short and long doesn't matter. Which is all I was saying.
>
> If combining all integers into a single type isn't actually desired,
> then neither my message nor Martin's is relevant.

As I said before, at the C level I expect the distinction between int
and long to be alive and well. Changing it so that ints don't have the
full range of the corresponding C type would be painful IMO.

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