Hi all, Some assorted thoughts:
Python's current numeric model has serious problems. It's fine for calculating with nothing but floats, or nothing but ints, but writing code that works for ints, floats, complexes *and* Decimals - let alone for custom types such as mpfs or numeric arrays - is nearly impossible. Duck typing doesn't work because these types all have different interfaces, despite being functionally (or conceptually) equivalent for many purposes. Generic functions would solve most of the problem. I don't see this example being brought up often (perhaps I've just missed those posts), but I do think improved support for custom numeric types is a very strong motivation for implementing generic functions in Python 3.0. If operators could be overloaded as well (to define mpf()+Decimal(), say) without creating wrapper classes, it'd be even better. Are people still positive regarding the idea of merging decimal and binary floats into the same type? (Or at least ensuring that they can be mixed seamlessly, which should be no problem with decimal literals added to the language.) Is someone currently working on a faster implementation of Decimal? I'm occupied, but might be able to lend a hand soon. The issue of generally extending Python's default math library was also brought up quite recently. I don't think incorporating half of SciPy or nzmath would be a good idea at all, but there's certainly room for more small utility functions. For example, isodd()/iseven() would be extremely nice (how many times have you typed/read the mind-numbing expression "n%2 == 0"?). Anyone for PEP-writing? I can think of numerous small changes (and ideas too insane to suggest publicly on this list); perhaps a wiki page first? Fredrik Johansson _______________________________________________ Python-3000 mailing list Python-3000@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000 Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-3000/archive%40mail-archive.com
