[Edu-sig] new python // and /

[Andrew Harrington]

On // and /,
I neglected to mention that in Python 2.4 you can already use / for real 
division in any file where the top line imports from future:

from __future__ import division

Andrew Harrington wrote:

>As I gear up to write or translate lessons for Crunchy Frog, I would 
>like feedback on one general issue: 
>//  -- the new integer division operator.
>
>// is already legal in Python 2.4, though / still means the same thing 
>for integers.  That is to change in Python 2.5, that is already in alpha 
>2: 
>/ as integer division will able to be set to mean the old operator or 
>always mean real division (I forget which is the default in 2.5).
>
>I think this is an excellent change in Python.  I would encourage using 
>// for integer division in all newly written lessons.  There is the 
>issue in 2.4 that you still have to go through an extra cast if you want 
>real division,
>x = 5
>y = 3
>real_quotient = float(x)/y
>
>but there is nothing for that at the moment
>
>  
>


-- 
  Andrew N. Harrington
  Computer Science Department      Undergraduate Program Director
  Loyola University Chicago        http://www.cs.luc.edu/~anh
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