[issue9498] stdtypes.rst should refer to sys.float_info

[Yitz Gale]

New submission from Yitz Gale <gale at sefer.org>:

Library docs section 5.4 "Numeric Types" states about floating point numbers that "all bets on their precision are off unless you happen to know the machine you are working with."

That has not been true since Python 2.6, when sys.float_info was added. There should be a reference to that here instead of that statement.

In addition, that paragraph mentions that both float and complex are "implemented using double in C". There is no longer any special reason to mention how those are implemented in C, any more than anything else in Python. Everything you need to know about the implementation is in sys.float_info. (Well, almost everything, see #9192.)

The attached patch is for the Python 3.2 branch.

----------
assignee: docs at python
components: Documentation
files: stdtypes_float_info.patch
keywords: patch
messages: 112670
nosy: docs at python, ygale
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: stdtypes.rst should refer to sys.float_info
type: behavior
versions: Python 2.6, Python 2.7, Python 3.1, Python 3.2
Added file: http://bugs.python.org/file18353/stdtypes_float_info.patch

_______________________________________
Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue9498>
_______________________________________