[Edu-sig] re: Types and true division (was Re: strange output)

[Christopher A. Craig]

[Arthur] >>> Arthur write:
         >>> Have you responding in any serious way to my point about a
         >>> potentially harmeful side effect.  In the year over which this has
         >>> been discussed.
[Guido]  >> And what would that side effect be?  What's the benefit >of 1/2==0?
[Arthur] > 
         > Provides the signal and the reminder of the importance of giving attention
         > to the underlying numeric typing scheme.  Not a complicated or brilliant
         > point. But real, experientially, IMO.

I can only presume that you also opposed 2**1024 returning a long
rather than raising an error and dictionary iteration for the same
reason.  

With respect to your experience that may be a real point.  With
respect to language design it seems totally inane.  Ceiling tiles
falling on my head might remind me that I need regular building
maintenance and my engine locking up might remind me that I need oil
changes, but that's no reason to design a building so that ceiling
tiles fall more quickly or cars to be less tolerant to operator abuse.

I don't understand how getting what you want instead of an error could
be considered a 'potentially harmful side effect' of a language
change.  It seems like the logical extension of this theory is that we
should make compilers illegal so that people will be spared the agony
of not understanding parallel execution, stack tables, and register
reuse.

-- 
Christopher A. Craig <list-python-edu@ccraig.org>
The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten
small children.  - Linus Torvalds