[Python-Dev] Re: PEP239 (Rational Numbers) Reference Implementation and new issues

[Andrew Koenig]

By the way, has anyone considered the idea of making operations
on rationals faster by never storing any trailing zeroes in the
numerator or denominator?  Instead, strip them and store the
(signed) difference between the number of zeroes you've stripped
from the numerator and the number you've stripped from the denominator.

In other words, instead of storing (num, denom) and having the number
be the (exact) value of num/demon, store (num, denom, exp) and have the
number be the (exact) value of (2**exp)*num/denom.


-- 
Andrew Koenig, ark@research.att.com, http://www.research.att.com/info/ark