Chris Rebert writes:
We're talking about adding a feature, not taking speed away.
OK, that's reasonable. But adding features is expensive. BTW, don't listen to me, I've never done it. Listen to Raymond.
If anything, this would increase adoption of Python as people writing programs that use decimals extensively would be able to use decimals with greater ease.
Maybe. I don't see a huge advantage of over import Decimal I also think that most of the (easy) advantage to Decimal will accrue to people who *never* have to deal with measurement error: accountants. But oops! they don't need Decimal per se; they're perfectly happy with big integers. People who really *do* need Decimal are not going to be deterred by 16 characters (counting the newline<wink>); they're already into real pain.
Additionally, your argument can be turned on its head ;-) Consider: Does perfect accuracy matter quite *that* critically in most everyday programs? Of course not. But that's the wrong question. Python is a *general-purpose* programming language, not an "everyday application where accuracy isn't critical programming language". There are plenty of applications that just cry out<wink> for a Python implementation where it does matter.
I think you've misspelled "precision".<wink> Improved accuracy cannot be achieved simply by adding a new number type.