[Tim Peters] #- The second way of spelling it is fine, but there's no need #- to cater to an #- optional context argument. Decimal.using_context(input) #- should use the #- current context object. It's been a general rule so far #- that all operations #- are available as methods *of* context objects too, so in the #- goofy case (I #- say "goofy" because I predict it won't be used in real life) #- of wanting to #- force use of a particular non-current context object c, the #- natural spelling #- is (or should be) #- #- c.using_context(input) You mean adding a method to the context, to create a Decimal using itself as context and not the one from the thread? If yes, what about c.create_decimal(number) ? And with floats? c.create_decimal_from_float(number)? Or the same method that before? . Facundo