newbie floating point question

[Tim Peters]

[Alex]
> Why does this happen ?
>
> >>> .2
> 0.20000000000000001
>
> Is this the correct behavior for the Python 2.2 interpreter ?

It's both correct and inexcusable, maddening and highly desirable.  The main
difference between Python and other languages you may have used here is that
Python isn't lying to you (well, it is, but not as badly as most others):

    http://www.python.org/doc/current/tut/node14.html