[Python-Dev] Weekly Python Bug/Patch Summary (original) (raw)

Tim Peters tim.one at comcast.net
Wed Feb 18 22:28:51 EST 2004

[Jeff Epler]

Thanks for reminding me that this all varies from machine to machine. I guess that what I was trying to say in my message is this:

On my platform, I get the same result. Here's why. The term "unordered" came from me reading an x86 architecture reference and trying to use the same words the grown-ups use.

That manual got "unordered" from the IEEE-754 floating point standard, and it's a fine word to use. The problem is that the 754 standard (which also goes under a number of different names now) has no defined relationship to the C89 standard, so when talking about C code it doesn't matter at all what the 754 standard says: "unordered" just isn't a C89 concept. 754 does have a defined relationship to the newer C99 standard.

It's too bad you can get infinity and nan other than by using float('os-specific mumbo-jumbo'), because if that weren't the case we could just force Python's syntax for floating-point literals on the argument to float(), never passing it to the platform atof() if it doesn't conform. That would, uh, completely solve all problems python programmers ever encounter with floats.

It would be easier to just remove floats from Python for 2.4 .

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list