[Python-Dev] re: %b format (no, really)

[Greg Wilson]

Prompted in part by the comment in Michael Hudson's
python-dev summary about this discussion having died,
I'd like to summarize:

1. Most people who commented felt that a base-2 format
   would be useful, if only for teaching and debugging.
   With regard to questions about byte order:

   A. Integer values are printed as base-2 numbers, so
      byte order is irrelevant.

   B. Floating-point numbers are printed as:

      [sign] [mantissa] [exponent]

      The mantissa and exponent are shown according
      to rule A.

2. Inventing a format for converting to arbitrary
   bases is dubious hypergeneralization (to borrow a
   phrase).

3. Implementation should mirror octal and hexadecimal
   support, e.g. a 'bin()' function to go with 'oct()'
   and 'hex()'.

4. The desirability or otherwise of a "%b" format
   specifier has nothing to do with the relative
   merits of any early microprocessor :-).

If no-one has strong objections, I'll put together a
PEP on this basis.

Thanks
Greg


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