[Python-Dev] Re: Should we require IEEE 754 floating-point for CPython?

I think you skimmed over "A floating point expert can probably look at this ... " I remember a time when I just assumed more bits was better, and a later time when I figured smaller was better, and a still later time when I wanted to match the published requirements for bitsize. So that was several years when I didn't really understand the tradeoffs, but could benefit from (or at least write better documentation) knowing the size. During those years, I would have recognized the importance of 1024, but would probably not have bothered interpreting 2.220446049250313. A method (or docstring) with a more friendly interface would be good. -jJ