> Much of this discussion is based on a misconception. Units and SI scale > factors > are very useful in software that describes or interacts with the real world, > but > primarily on input and output. They are not normally used for internal > calculations. The idea that one carries units on variables interior to > a program, and that those units are checked for all interior calculations, is > naive. Doing such thing adds unnecessary and often undesired complexity. > Rather, it is generally only desirable to allow users to include scale > factors > and units on values they specify and values they read. This implies that it > is > only necessary to provide a package for reading and writing physical > quantities, > and indeed such a package exists: QuantiPhy. QuantiPhy came out of the ideas > that were raised the last time this topic was discussed on this mailing list > a few years ago.
Why is it naive to carry the units through calculation? Seems to me that a one-byte lookup and a 64-bit add/subtract would be enough to enable any plausible combination of standard units during computation. The conversion from raw powers of 7 base SI units to units of choice could be done at a higher level code at the input/output stage. QuantiPhy is definitely not what I am thinking of. You don't happen to have a subject line for the previous discussion that I can look up, do you? _______________________________________________ Python-ideas mailing list -- python-ideas@python.org To unsubscribe send an email to python-ideas-le...@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-ideas.python.org/ Message archived at https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-ideas@python.org/message/PL3UHVROZFO3FIH2OZZJQF3R3YDWMM4S/ Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
