[docs] [issue29710] Incorrect representation caveat on bitwise operation docs

[Tim Peters]

Tim Peters <tim at python.org> added the comment:

To answer the old accusation ;-), no, this isn't my wording.  I _always_ explain that Python's integer bit operations act as if the integers were stored in 2's-complement representation but with an infinite number of sign bits.  That's all.  That provides insight.

For example, then it's dead obvious that `-1 == ~0` (both an infinite solid string of 1 bits); that for any integer `i`, `-1 ^ i == ~i" (both flip each bit in `i`); and that for any positive integers `i` and `j` it's necessarily the case that `-i ^ -j` is positive (because the infinite strings of sign bits cancel out).

The reference manual is under no obligation to explain how to _implement_ this illusion, and I don't think it's helpful to try.  People here are struggling to explain how to pick a number of bits "big enough" to make it all work out on a case by case basis, but the single answer "infinity" is big enough to apply in all cases ;-)

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue29710>
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