Numeric literal syntax

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:30:03 +0000, Alan G Isaac wrote:

>> bearophileHUGS at lycos.com writes:
>> 
>>> For Python 2.7/3.1 I'd now like to write a PEP regarding the
>>> underscores into the number literals, like: 0b_0101_1111, 268_435_456
>>> etc.
>> 
>> +1 on such a capability.
>> 
>> -1 on underscore as the separator.
> 
> 
> On 9/1/2008 9:13 PM Ben Finney apparently wrote:
>> When you proposed this last year, the counter-proposal was made
>> <URL:http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/
msg/18123d100bba63b8?dmode=source>
>> to instead use white space for the separator, exactly as one can now do
>> with string literals.
> 
> Yuck.
> Repeating a mistake means two mistakes.

A lot of us don't think that white space between string literals was a 
mistake. A lot of us consider it a desirable feature.


> But I would hate less the use of nobreak spaces, since any decent editor
> can reveal them.

How do you type a nobreak space? 

It's also probably a bad idea for Python the language to depend on 
developers using "a decent editor", since many people disagree on what a 
decent editor is, and many other people don't have access to whatever you 
consider "a decent editor".



-- 
Steven