[Python-ideas] Python Float Update

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 11:37:17PM -0400, random832 at fastmail.us wrote:
> On Sun, May 31, 2015, at 23:21, Jim Witschey wrote:
> > I think hiding hardware number implementations has been a success for
> > integers - it's a far superior API. It could be for rationals as well.
> 
> I'd worry about unbounded complexity. For rationals, unlike integers,
> values don't have to be large for their bignum representation to be
> large.

You and Guido both. ABC used exact integer fractions as their numeric 
type, and Guido has spoken many times about the cost in both time and 
space (memory) of numeric calculations using rationals.



-- 
Steve