[Python-Dev] Negative long literals (was Re: Does Python need a '>>>' operator?)

[Tim Peters]

>> If you have a *positive* long that would fit in a 32-bit
>> unsigned int ..
>   Whoops. That should have been a 0x8... in my example :)

[Michael Gilfix]
>    At ny rate, I wish this function was available as a built-in. It
> would be nice if I had some conversion function where python looked
> at the highest bit and treated that as my word boundary to determine
> whether the number is positive or not.

Write a patch and try to sell it to Guido.  I expect that with int/long
unification coming along nicely, it doesn't stand much chance.