Octal notation: severe deprecation

[and-google at doxdesk.com]

John Machin wrote:

> I regard continued usage of octal as a pox and a pestilence.

Quite agree. I was disappointed that it ever made it into Python.

Octal's only use is:

a) umasks
b) confusing the hell out of normal non-programmers for whom a
leading zero is in no way magic

(a) does not outweigh (b).

In Mythical Future Python I would like to be able to use any base in
integer literals, which would be better. Example random syntax:

flags= 2x00011010101001
umask= 8x664
answer= 10x42
addr= 16x0E800004  # 16x == 0x
gunk= 36x8H6Z9A0X

But either way, I want rid of 0->octal.

> Is it not regretted?

Maybe the problem just doesn't occur to people who have used C too
long.

OT: Also, if Google doesn't stop lstrip()ing my posts I may have to get
a proper news feed. What use is that on a Python newsgroup? Grr.
-- 
Andrew Clover
mailto:and at doxdesk.com
http://www.doxdesk.com/