[Python-Dev] Re: PEP239 (Rational Numbers) Reference Implementation and new issues (original) (raw)

Andrew Koenig ark@research.att.com
02 Oct 2002 22:25:07 -0400

Greg> But how long are they going to stay small and efficient, Greg> once you start doing arithmetic on them?

Depends on what kind of arithmetic.

Greg> The problem as I see it is not the magnitude of the number, but Greg> that the number of significant bits grows without bound, if you Greg> never throw any of them away.

So I'm suggesting that maybe it won't get bad as quickly if you keep only the significant bits :-)

Seriously, I don't know whether it would help in practice. It might be that normalizing rationals from time to time would be enough.

-- Andrew Koenig, ark@research.att.com, http://www.research.att.com/info/ark