[Python-Dev] Re: Decimal data type issues (original) (raw)

Aahz aahz at pythoncraft.com
Tue Apr 20 13:36:34 EDT 2004

On Tue, Apr 20, 2004, Kevin Jacobs wrote:

Aahz wrote:

On Tue, Apr 20, 2004, Kevin Jacobs wrote:

Neither. It is well understood that operations on Decimal instances must rely on the context. The idea here is to overflow and round correctly upon instance creation without going through a great deal of additional effort. Why do you think this is a "great deal" of effort? I still have some trouble understanding why you think this should go into Decimal rather than being an add-on. It could be an add-on, but it seems a common and fundamental enough operation that it should be well supported by the core library. External implementations may be less efficient, as they cannot take advantage of the internal implementation details that a better integrated solution would offer. This isn't something I am willing to go to war on, but at the same time, I'm willing to expend some effort to lobby for inclusion. Either way, I will have the necessary infrastructure to accomplish my aims, though my goal is for everyone to have it without re-inventing the wheel. Silence on this topic benefits nobody.

How is your need here more common and fundamental than Money? I see here a repeat of the discussions around the new datetime module, where the decision was made to keep the core implementation dirt-simple, with enough hooks for people to add functionality. What makes this case different?

Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"I used to have a .sig but I found it impossible to please everyone..." --SFJ

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list