On 2022-04-06 14:28, Chris Angelico wrote:
What do the specialized libraries offer that Decimal doesn't? Is it
really worth all that hassle for the sake of teaching something that,
in production, would just be done with floats and the math module
anyway?
If the decimal module did not already have a global context, would you
suggest adding it just in order to support this sort of teaching use-case?
It seems to me that the general claim about global context being a
mistake is that it can create pitfalls. In that sense, the global
context already is a "hassle" that is imposed on people. I don't see
that the potentially-offsetting benefit of (as you say) teaching
something that would actually just be done with floats is really that
compelling. It's nice, sure, but I also don't see any problem with
saying "sorry, you'll have to install a third-party module if you want
to teach some mathematical background about how some operations work,
because we only put into the stdlib what was necessary to actually do
those operations, not teach and demo their underpinnings".
--
Brendan Barnwell
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no
path, and leave a trail."
--author unknown
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