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

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Thu, 03 Oct 2002 10:56:48 -0400

After reading most of the discussion, I don't know what to do about this. There are a number of different ideas that should be reviewed separately: "classic" rationals, fixed-point decimal, a new kind of floats with settable precision...

I tend to think that rationals and superfloats are sufficiently esoteric that they should probably be relegated to an extension or library module. Fixed-point decimals have some nice properties, but apparently implementing it isn't easy -- Aahz has been sitting on a prototype approximately forever. I hear that Tim's FixedPoint package is now a SF project.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)