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

Christian Tismer tismer@tismer.com
Thu, 03 Oct 2002 11:20:54 -0700

Raymond Hettinger wrote:

From: "Christian Tismer" <tismer@tismer.com>

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 :-) Yes. And this is what a rounding to float would do for you. That is unless you wanted more precision than comes with a float. Normalization to some arbitrary maximum denominator magnitude would be a more general purpose solution.

Sure, this is right. So rationals are seriously considered? Would be great.

ciao - chris

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