int/long unification hides bugs

[kartik]

Cliff Wells <clifford.wells at comcast.net> wrote in message news:<mailman.5482.1098767004.5135.python-list at python.org>...
> On Mon, 2004-10-25 at 21:05 -0700, kartik wrote:
> > > The question is how small is small? Less than 2**7? Less than 2**15? 
> > > Less than 2**31? Less than 2**63? And what's the significance of powers 
> > > of two? And what happens if you move from a 32 bit machine to a 64 bit 
> > > one? (or a 1024 bit one in a hundred years time?)
> > 
> > less than 2**31 most of the time & hardly ever greater than 2**63 - no
> > matter if my machine is 32-bit, 64-bit or 1024-bit. the required range
> > depends on the data   u want 2 store in the variable & not on the
> > hardware.
> 
> I'm going to rewrite that last line in English so that perhaps you'll
> catch on to what you are saying:

thank u so much 4 your help, but i know what i'm saying without
assistance from clowns like u. & i dont give a damn about your rules 4
proper communciation, as long as i'm understood.

 
> '''
> the required range depends on the data you want to store in the variable
> and not on the hardware.
> '''
> 
> The pivotal word here is "you".  The data *you* want to store.  One more
> time YOU.  I'm not correcting your mangling of English at this point,
> rather I'm pointing out that it's *you*, not Python, that knows what
> sort of data *you* want to store.  If *you* want to limit your integers
> to some arbitrary amount then *you* are going to have to write code to
> do that.  

> What *you* need for *your* application isn't necessarily what
> anyone else needs for theirs.

the required range, while being different for different variables, is
generally is less than 2**31 - & *that* can be checked by the
language.