Comment on PEP-0238

[Guido van Rossum]

aahz at panix.com (Aahz Maruch) writes:

> I'm in agreement with Guido that at least two releases are necessary
> (I also agree that it could be two warning releases).  But I think
> Guido's step 3 (if used) should be changed to the semantically equivalent
> 
>     In Python 2.4, integer division with the '/' operator raises an
>     exception.  This exception can be caught as usual, but the
>     programmer should prepare for the next release of Python by either
>     using the div() function or by using the future directive to get
>     floating point division.

Oh, Aazh!  I wasn't writing a formal specification, I was sketching a
plan.  In that context, using "make it an error" is the right level of
detail.  Everybody can fill in for themselves that that means it's an
exception, since that's how we typically signal errors in Python.

> (Calling it an error is technically imprecise; an exception isn't
> *necessarily* an error.)

No, I meant it to be an error.

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