[Matrix-SIG] Numeric Nits

[Konrad Hinsen]

> Fortran 90 compilers get an error if your request is "unreasonable" for that
> compiler.
> The same kind syntax is also used for controlling integer variable size.
> 
> I presume that a routine to calculate the word sizes is possible or that
> something can be done with configure, but I haven't thought it out.

Both integer and float type properties can be analyzed at configure
time or at run time, that's no problem. For floats suitable code could
be stolen from LAPACK, and for integers it is very simple to write.

All this sounds like a good proposal for Python 2.0, together with a
general rework of the number/arithmetic system. Maybe the Matrix-SIG
could work out a detailed proposal to be submitted to Guido. Here are
some features that I would like to see:

- Support of different precisions in a portable way (see above).

- Integration of arrays into the Python core, equivalence between
  scalars and rank-0 arrays.

- integration of all number-like data types into a single
  data type, with integers, floats, etc. being only different
  internal representations of numbers. That would remove oddities
  such as 1/2 == 0 (the single most surprising feature in Python
  for newcomers in my opinion).

Konrad.
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