Tim Peters <t...@python.org> added the comment: To answer the old accusation ;-), no, this isn't my wording. I _always_ explain that Python's integer bit operations act as if the integers were stored in 2's-complement representation but with an infinite number of sign bits. That's all. That provides insight.
For example, then it's dead obvious that `-1 == ~0` (both an infinite solid string of 1 bits); that for any integer `i`, `-1 ^ i == ~i" (both flip each bit in `i`); and that for any positive integers `i` and `j` it's necessarily the case that `-i ^ -j` is positive (because the infinite strings of sign bits cancel out). The reference manual is under no obligation to explain how to _implement_ this illusion, and I don't think it's helpful to try. People here are struggling to explain how to pick a number of bits "big enough" to make it all work out on a case by case basis, but the single answer "infinity" is big enough to apply in all cases ;-) ---------- _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue29710> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com
