Rationale for core Python numeric types

[Josef Dalcolmo]

on Thu, 15 Jul 2004 15:14:47 -0400
Tim Peters <tim.peters at gmail.com> wrote:


> Python longs are 2's-complement with a conceptually infinite number of
> sign bits (whether 0 or 1).  So ~0 will be, like ~0L today, an
> infinite string of 1 bits.  Even today:
> 
> >>> (~0) & 0xff
> 255
> >>> (~0L) & 0xff
> 255L
> >>> ~0 == ~0L == -1
> True


Ok, so using longs should be the way of the future in Python, but unfortunately trying to pass to fcntl.fcntl an argument of type long fails with a message saying it can take only int's. When I define an int where the MSB (of 32 bits) is set, I get a deprecation warning. I guess the module fcntl needs some updating.

- Josef