[Python-Dev] Int FutureWarnings and other 2.4 TODOs (original) (raw)

Andrew Koenig ark-mlist at att.net
Tue Dec 2 15:14:01 EST 2003

I'm not sure about that yet. I'd like to find a hack that lets the int type change representations, but the fact is that it's much easier to use different types to indicate different representations.

Aren't integers immutable? If so, I would think it doesn't make sense for them to change representation, as they don't change value.

Anyway, if you want to use type to encode representation, I would think that the various integer types should be related by inheritance. As a long can always substitute for an int, at least in theory, I would think that long should be derived from int. Then isinstance(42L, int) would yield True.

If integers are related this way, LSP implies that converting a long to a string should not put an L at the end.

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