Language change and code breaks

[Konrad Hinsen]

David Bolen <db3l at fitlinxx.com> writes:

> Of course, if a was complex then we wouldn't be worried about a/b
> truncating anything either.  But definitely something to keep in mind
> if working on code that might receive either complex or integer
> parameters.

Whenever you know the type of your objects there is no problem. But
often you want to write a mathematical expression which accepts any
reasonable type, even Python classes with a number interface. An
explicit cast to float() is very undesirable in such situations, and
a hack such as (a+0.)/b is not obvious to the uninitiated.

A special operator, // or whatever, with the meaning of "the best
approximation to standard artihmetic division that is available" is
the best way to express this, in my opinion. Perhaps some number-like
classes could even reimplement it in some clever way.

Konrad.
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