[Python-Dev] Negative long literals (was Re: Does Python need a '>>>' operator?)

[Guido van Rossum]

> > Do we really need this?
> 
> No, but I think it would make unification more attractive to people
> who care about this sub-issue.  The 0x vs 1x idea grew on me the
> longer I played with it.  Bonus: we could generalize and say that
> integers beginning with "1" are negative octal literals <wink>.

I'm not sure that we should extend the language at such a fundamental
level (as adding a new form of literal) to address such a minor issue.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)