On Jul 29, 2010, at 11:47 AM, Mark Dickinson wrote: > Now that we've got the short float repr in Python, there's less value > in having float.__str__ truncate to 12 significant digits (as it > currently does). For Python 3.2, I propose making float.__str__ use > the same algorithm as float.__repr__ for its output (and similarly for > complex).
When you proposed the idea at EuroPython, it seemed reasonable but we didn't go into the pros and cons. The downsides include breaking tests, changing the output of report generating scripts that aren't using string formatting, and it introduces another inter-version incompatibility. The only obvious advantage is that it makes float.__repr__ and float.__str__ the same, making one less thing to explain. Can you elaborate on other advantages? Is there something wrong with the current way? IIRC, some other tools like matlab have a relatively compact default display size for floats, perhaps because formatting matrices becomes awkward when there are too many digits shown and because many of those digits are insignificant. Also, I think those tools have a way to globally change the default number of digits. Am curious about your thoughts on the problem we're trying to solve and the implications of changing the default. Raymond _______________________________________________ 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
