[Python-Dev] Rounding float to int directly ...

[Nick Maclaren]

James Y Knight <foom at fuhm.net> wrote:
>
> I'd be happy to see floats lose their __int__ method entirely,  
> replaced by an explicit truncate function.

Come back Algol - all is forgiven :-)  Yes, indeed.  I have favoured
that view for 35 years - anything that can lose information quietly
should be explicit.


tanzer at swing.co.at (Christian Tanzer) wrote:
> Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> 
> > What's the feeling about this? If, e.g. int()
> > were changed in Py3k to round instead of truncate,
> > would it cause anyone substantial pain?
> 
> Gratuitous breakage!
>         
> I shudder at the thought of checking hundreds of int-calls to see if
> they'd still be correct under such a change.

My experience of doing that when compilers sometimes did one and sometimes
the other is that such breakages are rarer than the conversions to integer
that are broken with both rules!  And both are rarer than the code that
works with either rule.

However, a 5% breakage rate is still enough to be of concern.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
Email:  nmm1 at cam.ac.uk
Tel.:  +44 1223 334761    Fax:  +44 1223 334679