Rationale for core Python numeric types

[Tim Peters]

[Matt Feinstein]
> I'm new to Python, and was somewhat taken aback to discover that the
> core language lacks some basic numerical types (e.g., single-precision
> float, short integers). I realize that there are extensions that add
> these types-- But what's the rationale for leaving them out? Have I
> wandered into a zone in the space/time continuum where people never
> have to read binary data files?

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet:  see Python's standard "struct"
module.  That's the intended way to do I/O conversions from/to binary
files, and deals gracefully with the usual range of integer and float
sizes, signed versus unsigned distinctions, endian issues, and
platform-specific sizes & alignment versus "standard" sizes and
alignment.  Note that just having a pile of distinct numeric types
would leave half those issues untouched.