PEP 240 scares me

[Paul Prescod]

Skip Montanaro wrote:
> 
>...
> Okay, dumb question time.  Suppose the compiler sees the string "1.2" in the
> input stream.  How does it translate that into a rational number (6/5 or
> 12/10 or 24/20 or ...)?  Does it simply move the decimal point over
> sufficiently and create the corresponding rational number that contains the
> appropriate power-of-ten denominator?  

My understanding is that it moves the decimal point over and then it
factors out common factors from the top and bottom.

> What about rationals that can't be
> represented correctly using decimal notation (e.g. how does one get from
> 0.3333 to 1/3, or is it simply approximated by 3333/10000?)

0.3333 has no relation to 1/3. If you want 1/3 you would just type 1/3.
The idea is that division would yield rationals also!

-- 
Take a recipe. Leave a recipe.  
Python Cookbook!  http://www.activestate.com/pythoncookbook