PEP0238 lament

[Stephen Horne]

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001 04:06:30 -0000, Donn Cave <donn at drizzle.com>
wrote:

>Quoth "John W. Baxter" <jwbaxter at spamcop.com>:
>...
>| By the way, in .../lib/module-math.html (I keep my own copy on my end
>| of my 56K frame connection), it is not stated whether the input to
>| sin() (and the others where it applies) is degrees or radians.  An
>| experiment is necessary, or a reference to my rapidly waning C
>| knowledge or a visit to the C standard (which I'd rather not do, for
>| reasons of marginal sanity).
>|
>| >>> math.sin(1)
>| 0.8414709848078965
>|
>| is a conclusive experiment...which I had to run before making the "also
>| unlikely" claim.
>
>Right! and I don't think it's what the common folk expect either.
>Someone should write up a PEP to change these functions to take
>degrees (not on my account, but it would seem to be a potential
>stumbling block for the uninitiated, wouldn't it?)

Of course - and the chaos that would cause for people working with
engineering or mathematical notations where radians are natural
irrespective of the language or even the use of a computer should of
course be completely ignore ;-)