[Python-Dev] Re: PEP239 (Rational Numbers) Reference Implementation and new issues

[Guido van Rossum]

> But those feelings are no proof of anything.  How do we get the
> confirmation that using rationals in Python would be easy going and
> innocuous in practice, beforehand?

By adding them to the language but as an isolated type.  The right
conversions should happen when you mix rationals with other types of
numbers (int/long -> rational -> float -> complex), but no operations
should return rationals unless a rational goes in.

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