Fredrik Johansson writes: > In either case, compatibility can be ensured by allowing both n-digit > decimal and hardware binary precision for floats, settable via a float > context.
Perhaps you can show me a design (or working code) that proves me wrong, but I don't believe that such a design could be made compatible with the existing Decimal module... certainly while continuing to maintain compatibility with the Cowlinshaw specification. > There is the alternative of providing decimal literals by using > separate decimal and binary float base types If, by this, you mean adding a "binary float context" modeled after the Decimal float context and providing access to the underlying FP flags and traps and generally enhancing the use of binary FP, then I think it's a great idea. It's probably impossible to write in a cross-platform manner (because C supplies support for binary FP but does not offer access to the flags and traps), but this is one of those few cases where it's worth using platform-and-compiler specific code. Of course, someone still has to step forward and offer to code it. -- Michael Chermside _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com