Guido van Rossum wrote:
I don't particularly like either approach, because the 'long' type is an implementation detail over which the user has no control (this is a change of heart since Python's original design!). I guess that means I have to work harder and make the single int type support both representations. I'm sure it can be done.
Nick Coghlan:
Isn't the 'long' format the more general representation, with the 'int' format then being a performance hack to take advantage of the speed of C integer arithmetic?
I'm just wondering if a different way of thinking about it might help with figuring out how to handle a combined implementation.
I proposed that too, but Andrew Koenig didn't like it. --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)