On Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:22:29 +0000, Alan Gauld wrote: > "spir" <denis.s...@free.fr> wrote > >> Here is an overal and a trial to introduce my view on this topic. > ... >> * The mix of "extended logic" on non-logical types and treating >> integers >> as bit sequences provakes a kind of conceptual collision. >> * As a solution, bitwise operations may apply only to a type (byte or >> int) >> on which "extended logic" raises an TypeError. > > You are probably correct but it would break a ton of working code! > Especially when you recall that bool types were only introduced > relatively recently so a lot of old code relies on the fact that > True/False were until then literally 1/0. > > Maybe it is "improved" in Python 3. As you say the ~ operator makes most > sense if applied to bytes only. But for compatibility reasons I suspect > they have kept it as-is...
I think it's an unnecessary complication. In programming we have to remember that the decimal numbers we see are really just a user-friendly view of the bit patterns used in the CPU. These bit patterns are used in arithmetic and bit-wise operations (logical operation is a much higher concept, AFAIK no CPU implements hardware logical operation). _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
