PEP0238 lament

[Peter Hansen]

Michael Abbott wrote:
> 
> [...] From the professional
> programming perspective, I imagine that there are two types of programming
> task that are relevant to this discussion:
> 
> 1.  Scientific programs, [...]
> 2.  System control programs [...]
> 3.  Graphical programming can, [...]

You've forgotten the *one* type of programming which appeared
(at least to me) to be the inspiration for this in the first place:

4. Newbie programs

...as in, tiny, ultimately useless learning exercises which are
almost by definition never going to expand into anything that
matters in the long run.  This is *exactly* where mistakes or
confusion like this is supposed to occur for newbies to learn
the nature of computing.  Trying to prevent them from being
confused is much like taking down all the playground equipment
to prevent children from hurting themselves: they'll grow up
incapable of anything requiring more agility than walking!!

Given that the only people seriously likely to be confused by
the whole issue of integer/integer division are these newbies
and very infrequent/casual users of Python, breaking code 
*and* annoying a massive part of the existing user base would 
seem to be an excessive payment for the small gain of having 
a few more newbie programs work the first time they're run..

-- 
----------------------
Peter Hansen, P.Eng.
peter at engcorp.com