Octal number problem

[Greg Ewing (using news.cis.dfn.de)]

Carlos Ribeiro wrote:
> I may be mistaken (and someone probably will be more than happy to tell me 
> why), but this inconsistence alone seems like a good reason to deprecate 
> octals (if only in Python 3000!).

The PSU actually implemented this in 2017, although
not quite in time for the release of Python 3000, so
it was incorporated into the following release, which
was to have been called Python 3001. But then someone
suggested that it should be called Python 03000, to
help advertise the new feature. Unfortunately, with
the new feature in place, Python 03000 was identical
to Python 3000, which didn't have the feature, which
meant they weren't identical after all, which meant...

The resulting space-time incompatibility convolution
paradox was such hell to sort out that the PSU decided
they would never again attempt to make any such change,
nor allow anyone else to do so, and they rigorously
enforce this policy using the time machine. So we're
stuck with leading-0-meaning-octal, I'm afraid.

-- 
Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept,
University of Canterbury,	
Christchurch, New Zealand
http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~greg