[Python-Dev] Deprecation warning on integer shifts and such

[Guido van Rossum]

> Just a thougth: if it's true that those using hex() and %x are more
> interested in the bit values than the numerical value of the whole number,
> would a format like ~0xff000 be easier to interpret (and stop this debate) ?

Hmm...  It has a perverse Pythonic smell...  But I fear it would
introduce more backwards incompatibilities, because it would have to
apply to longs as well, and hence change the output whenever a
negative long is converted to hex or octal.  (And what about %u?
Should "%u" % -1 return "~0" too?)

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)