Numeric literal syntax (was: Py 2.6 changes)

[bearophileHUGS at lycos.com]

Ben Finney:
> I don't see any good reason (other than your familiarity with the D
> language) to use underscores for this purpose, and much more reason
> (readability, consistency, fewer arbitrary differences in syntax,
> perhaps simpler implementation) to use whitespace just as with string
> literals.

It's not just my familiarity, Ada language too uses underscore for
that purpose, I think, so there's a precedent, and Ada is a language
designed to always minimize programming errors, simple code mistakes
too.

And another thing to consider is that they so far have given me zero
problems...

Consider:

a = 125 125 125

a = 125, 125, 125

a = 125_125_125

For me the gestalt of the first line looks too much like the second
one, that is three separated things (note that this is relative to the
font you use, I am using a really good free font, Inconsolata, the
very best I have found to program (better than Consolas) that
separates things well). While in the third case the _ helps glue the
parts, creating a single gestalt to my eyes.

Note that it's not just a matter of font and familiarity, it's also a
matter of brains. Your brain may be different from mine, so it may be
possible that what's better for you isn't better for me. So in such
situation a popular voting may be the only way to choose. But for me
having spaces to split number literals in parts is _worse_ than not
having any way at all to split them. So I'm strong opposed to your
suggestion, so I may not even propose the PEP if lot of people agrees
with your tastes.

Bye,
bearophile