[Python-Dev] Cannot declare the largest integer literal.

[Greg Stein]

On Tue, 9 May 2000, Christian Tismer wrote:
>...
> Right. That was the reason for my first, dumb, proposal:
> Always interpret a number as negative and negate it once more.
> That makes it positive. In a post process, remove double-negates.
> This leaves negations always where they are allowed: On negatives.

IMO, that is a non-intuitive hack. It would increase the complexity of
Python's parsing internals. Again, with little measurable benefit.

I do not believe that I've run into a case of needing -2147483648 in the
source of one of my programs. If I had, then I'd simply switch to
0x80000000 and/or assign it to INT_MIN.

-1 on making Python more complex to support this single integer value.
   Users should be pointed to 0x80000000 to represent it. (a FAQ entry
   and/or comment in the language reference would be a Good Thing)


Cheers,
-g

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/