[Python-3000] More PEP 3101 changes incoming

[Talin]

Ron Adam wrote:
> Now here's the problem with all of this.  As we add the widths back into 
> the format specifications, we are basically saying the idea of a separate 
> field width specifier is wrong.
> 
> So maybe it's not really a separate independent thing after all, and it 
> just a convenient grouping for readability purposes only.

I'm beginning to suspect that this is indeed the case.

Before we go too much further, let me give out the URLs for the .Net 
documentation on these topics, since much of the current design we're 
discussing has been inspired by .Net:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dwhawy9k.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0c899ak8.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0asazeez.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c3s1ez6e.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az4se3k1.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/txafckwd.aspx

I'd suggest some study of these. Although I would warn against adopting 
this wholesale, as there are a huge number of features described in 
these documents, more than I think we need.

One other URL for people who want to play around with implementing this 
stuff is my Python prototype of the original version of the PEP. It has 
all the code you need to format floats with decimal precision, 
exponents, and so on:

http://www.viridia.org/hg/python/string_format?f=5e4b833ed285;file=StringFormat.py;style=raw

-- Talin