[Python-3000] PEP 3101 suggested corrections

[Jim Jewett]

On 10/26/07, Larry Hastings <larry at hastings.org> wrote:
>  His point is that Python has a fixed-point number type called "Decimal",
> and that this will lead to confusion.  I can see his point, but we all know
> from years of C programming that "%d" takes an int and formats it in base
> 10--there is no confusion about this.

Sure there is.  C isn't the only language where I've used it, but I
still sometimes have to look up whether 'd' is "decimal" or "double".
I've found bugs in C where someone else just assumed it was "double".
If it weren't for backwards compatibility, 'i' would be a much better
option, and saving 'd' for an actual Decimal (which might have a
decimal point) would be good.

http://docs.python.org/lib/typesseq-strings.html already allows both.
The question is whether repurposing 'd' would break too much.

That said, I think a Decimal that happens to be an integer probably
*should* print differently from an integer, because the precision is
an important part of a Decimal, and won't always fall conveniently at
the decimal point.

-jJ