[Trent Mick]
i = -2147483648 OverflowError: integer literal too large i = -2147483648L int(i) # it *is* a valid integer literal -2147483648
Python's grammar is such that negative integer literals don't exist; what you actually have there is the unary minus operator applied to positive integer literals; indeed,
def f(): return -42
import dis dis.dis(f) 0 SET_LINENO 1
3 SET_LINENO 2 6 LOAD_CONST 1 (42) 9 UNARY_NEGATIVE 10 RETURN_VALUE 11 LOAD_CONST 0 (None) 14 RETURN_VALUE
Note that, at runtime, the example loads +42, then negates it: this wart has deep roots!
... And was the effect on functions like PyOS_strtol() down the pipe missed?
More that it was considered an inconsequential endcase. It's sure not worth changing the grammar for <wink>. I'd rather see Python erase the visible distinction between ints and longs.