[Python-ideas] Improve readability of long numeric literals

[Ethan Furman]

On 02/09/2016 04:06 PM, Ben Finney wrote:
 > Ian Kelly writes:

 >> Another disadvantage to using spaces is that it could mask an
 >> inadvertently omitted operator that previously would have been a
 >> SyntaxError.
 >
 > The exact same fact – that a proposed new syntax was previously a
 > syntax error – is commonly presented as a positive. We know there are
 > no valid Python programs already using the construct to mean
 > something else.
 >
 > So I don't think it's reasonable to present that now as though it were
 > negative.

If the SyntaxError is also a common mistake, then suddenly having it be 
working, but wrong, code is a bad thing.


 > (good sigmonster, have a cookie)


      “… correct code is great, code that crashes could use |
    improvement, but incorrect code that doesn’t crash is a |
              horrible nightmare.” —Chris Smith, 2008-08-22 |

Yes, good sigmonster - "incorrect code that doesn't crash is a horrible 
nightmare" -- which is what could happen when a SyntaxError suddenly 
becomes syntacticly correct.

--
~Ethan~