[MATRIX-SIG] integer division -- what a concept!
Rupert Mazzucco
maz@pap.univie.ac.at
Fri, 16 Jan 1998 20:05:44 +0100 (MET)
Q: What is n/(n+1)?
A: 0
This is of course wrong for most practical purposes,
but it is the result Python will give.
I'm aware that I should have written n/(n+1.0), or
typcast, or been more careful in the first place,
and that there are historical reasons;
nevertheless I think the above behaviour is
most unfortunate for the following reasons:
* Bugs can creep into the code in no time.
Just leave out a .0 ... And the
chance is not bad, especially when copying
algorithms from textbooks.
* These errors are extremely hard to find, because
calculations will yield valid, albeit wrong, values.
And how can you ever be sure you have found all of them?
* Explicit typecasts and .0's all over the place make
algorithms hard to read and comparison with textbooks
difficult.
So, is there any way to change this behaviour?
Thank you,
Rupert Mazzucco
_______________
MATRIX-SIG - SIG on Matrix Math for Python
send messages to: matrix-sig@python.org
administrivia to: matrix-sig-request@python.org
_______________