Feature suggestion: sum() ought to use a compensated summation algorithm

[Torsten Bronger]

Hallöchen!

Erik Max Francis writes:

> Szabolcs Horvát wrote:
>
>> Arnaud Delobelle wrote:
>>>
>>> sum() works for any sequence of objects with an __add__ method, not
>>> just floats!  Your algorithm is specific to floats.
>>
>> This occurred to me also, but then I tried
>>
>> sum(['abc', 'efg'], '')
>>
>> and it did not work.  Or is this just a special exception to
>> prevent the  misuse of sum to join strings?  (As I said, I'm only
>> an occasional user.)
>
> What you wrote is nonsensical there, no different from 'a' + 1 --
> which is why it quite rightly raises a TypeError.

No, the above expression should yield ''+'abc'+'efg', look for the
signature of sum in the docs.

Tschö,
Torsten.

-- 
Torsten Bronger, aquisgrana, europa vetus
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