[Python-Dev] [bug?] UserLong.py - pow(5, UserLong(3), 26) fails

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

hiya people,

been a while, i'm back onto python exploration for
a serious monster exciting parallelisation project.

as part of the evaluation, i have created UserLong.py,
and am working my way through the list of all operations.

i may have some mistakes and/or missing operators, and
am trying to work this one out.

at the bottom of the file are some inline debug tests.

one of these - pow(int(5), UserLong(3), 26) - is failing:

Script started on Wed May  1 19:06:30 2002
highfield:/usr/local/lib/python2.2# python UserLong.py
int 3
long 3
5**int(y) 125
5**y rpow: (5,)
3
x^y%26 (3L, 26)
21L
5^y%26
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "UserLong.py", line 153, in ?
    print "5^y%26", pow(5, y, 26)
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for pow(): 'int', 'instance', 'int'
highfield:/usr/local/lib/python2.2# 
Script done on Wed May  1 19:06:37 2002

now, if i read this correctly, what is happening is that in
the [optimised] code, Objects/intobject.c, support for types
other than int, float and long - via the macro CONVERT_TO_LONG -
are simply not supported.

this i believe can be demonstrated to be so because if you
do pow(5, [], 26) you get the same error except replace
'instance' above with 'list'.

now, could someone with a little more knowledge than i kindly
evaluate, if they have the time, whether:

- _is_ this happening because i have missed out a function in
UserLong.py that i do not know the name of?

or:

- _is_ this due to a bug in intobject.c's int_pow()

or:

- _is_ this due to a bug in the implementation of the pow()
"spam" function?

- other?

many thanks,

luke

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