PEP 327: Decimal Data Type

[Josiah Carlson]

> If I needed more than that, I'd use a rational type - I speak from
> experience as I set out to write a base N float library for C++ once
> upon a time and ended up writing a rational instead. A rational, BTW,
> isn't too bad to get working but that's as far as I got - doing it
> well would probably take a lot of work. And if getting Base N floats
> working was harder than for rationals, getting them to work well would
> probably be an order of magnitude harder - for no real benefit to 99%
> or more of users.

I also wrote a rational type (last summer).  It took around 45 minutes. 
  Floating point takes a bit longer to get right.

> Just because a thing can be done, that doesn't make it worth doing.

Indeed :)

  - Josiah