[Python-Dev] Changing the Division Operator -- PEP 238, rev 1.12 (original) (raw)

Michael Hudson mwh@python.net
10 Aug 2001 04:17:13 -0400

"Tim Peters" <tim.one@home.com> writes:

[Michael Hudson] > Hmm. While I agree that 'or'ing is the best thing to do by default, > it would be nice if there was some way of requesting a blank starting > point (this is the other unresolved issue in PEP 236, after all). > Maybe it's not worth it.

Well, there's no reason at all to believe that whatever future statements IDLE and doctest (for examples) happen to use in their own implementations are also appropriate for the user-code they're simulating. So the problem isn't solved in full unless that connection can be broken (is that hard? offhand it sounds like it just needs another yes/no argument).

It's a matter of interface, really. It's certainly not at all technically hard. Maybe:

compile(text, filename, symbol[, flags[, dont_inherit]])

I worry that saying "you don't inherit behaviour from surrounding code as soon as you pass a flag" might get really, really confusing at times.

OTOH, IDLE and doctest (for examples) can easily enough be written to use no future-stmts at all of their own, so that code compiled from them gets a blank starting point. Whether that remains easy down the road depends on how silly we get in introducing stupid future stmts <0.9 wink>.

This is indeed the issue.

we-need-a-tritfield-ly y'rs M.

-- Important data should not be entrusted to Pinstripe, as it may eat it and make loud belching noises. -- from the announcement of the beta of "Pinstripe" aka. Redhat 7.0