[Python-Dev] Re: Revised PEP 237 - Unifying Long Integers and Integers

[Skip Montanaro]

    Guido> I'm proposing an implementation plan that keeps int and long as
    Guido> separate types, but otherwise will totally remove the
    Guido> differences.

    ...

    Guido> Please mail comments to me or to python-dev@python.org.

Looks reasonable to me.  I don't generally program anywhere near the edges
of current short integer arithmentic except when writing little demo
functions like fib or fact.  I wonder though, if some programmers might like
the option of telling integer arithmentic raise OverflowError instead of
coercing results to long ints.  If you're expecting to be playing with
numbers near zero and you start silently getting longs instead, it might be
nice to see an exception instead of having your program wander off into the
weeds (probably somewhat slowly).

Just a thought.

Skip