PEP0238 lament

[Grant Edwards]

In article <5sdnlt072hm6hp17nluu6f0fqq4bvr6mj8 at 4ax.com>, Stephen Horne wrote:
>On Sun, 22 Jul 2001 17:40:10 GMT, sill at optonline.net (Rainy) wrote:
>
>>First of all, it's really ugly. It's the ugliest thing in python for a newbie,
>>imho. Yes, 1/2 is 0. You have to type 1.0/2 to get 0.5. No, there is no good
>>reason for that, just memorize it. Ugh.
>
>No reason!
>
>Every five-year-old knows that 5 divided by 2 is 2 remainder 1. What
>is the problem?
>
>Integer division *is* important. Confusing integers and floats is a
>sign of sloppy thinking, and a clue that far more bugs are going to
>result.

Right. If you want redesign the language to prevent programmers
from creating bugs due to using the wrong numeric data types,
then you're only hope is to eliminate all but one of the
numeric types, and that numeric data type better do what
everybody expects all the time.

Can't be done.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  I always have fun
                                  at               because I'm out of my
                               visi.com            mind!!!