[Python-Dev] New operations in Decimal (original) (raw)

Tim Peters tim.peters at gmail.com
Sat May 12 06:57:25 CEST 2007

[Raymond Hettinger]

... My intention for the module is to be fully compliant with the spec and all of its tests. Code written in other languages which support the spec should expect to be transferrable to Python and run exactly as they did in the original language.

The module itself makes that promise: "this module should be kept in sync with the latest updates of the IBM specification as it evolves. Those updates will be treated as bug fixes (deviation from the spec is considered a compatibility, usability bug)" If I still have any say in the matter, please consider this a pronouncement. Tim, if you're listening, please chime in.

That was one of the major goals in agreeing to adopt an external standard for decimal: tedious arguments are left to the standard creators instead of clogging python-dev. Glad to see that's working exactly as planned ;-)

I'm with Raymond on this one, especially given the triviality of implementing the revised spec's new logical operations.

I personally wish they would have added more transcendental functions to the spec instead. That's bread-and-butter stuff for FP applications, while I don't see much use for the new "bit" operations. But if I felt strongly enough about that, I'd direct my concerns to the folks creating this standard. As slippery slopes go, this less than a handful of trivial new operations isn't steep enough to measure, let alone cause a landslide.

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