float / double support in Python?

[Brandon Van Every]

Andrew Bennetts wrote:
>
> The problem being that the more low-level bits Python directly
> supports, the less productive it is, because it forces you to care
> about the low-level bits.  That probably suits you; but for the bulk
> of Python programmers the difference between float and double is just
> an annoyance that would get in the way.

How are you "forced" to care?

> I use Python *because* it abstracts away these details, because
> mostly they don't matter.

The more abstraction for abstraction's sake, the more the language is
marginalized from significant areas of real world industrial use.  If you
want a language to be more popular, implement all basic machine types.

> But saying that
> Python should do something like distinguish between floats and
> doubles suggests that you're missing the point of Python.

You're missing the point of broadening the audience of Python.

--
Cheers,                         www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.