[Python-Dev] str with base

[Guido van Rossum]

On 1/18/06, Raymond Hettinger <raymond.hettinger at verizon.net> wrote:
> Guido, we may be converging on a consensus for my proposal:
>
>     base(value, radix=2)
>
> So far no one has shot at it, and it has gathered +1's from Steven,
> Alex, Brett, and Nick.

I think we ought to let this sit for a while and come back to it in a
few week's time. Is 'base' really the right name? It could just as
well be considered a conversion in the other direction. In common
usage, 'base' and 'radix' are about synonymous (except no-one uses
radix). Pethaps the 2nd argument should not be a keyword argument?

Also, this discussion made me wonder if conversions using other bases
than 10 should even be built-ins. A library module seems a more
appropriate place. The prevalence here of people who actually use hex
numbers on a regular basis is probably easily explained by a
combination of old-timers, language implementers, and super-geeks;
hardly the typical Python user. The desire of (bright) beginners to do
any kind of non-decimal conversion probably stems from a misguided
meme (dating back to the invention of computers) that in order to
learn about computers you ought to begin by learning about Boolean
algebra and binary numbers. That might be true long ago, but today,
binary, octal and hexadecimal numbers are mostly a curiosity used in
obscure low-level APIs like ioctl().

> To keep it simple, the proposal is for the value to be any int or long.
> With an underlying __base__ method call, it wouldn't be hard for someone
> to build it out to support other numeric types if the need arises.

Let's not. What would 3.14 be expressed in base 3?

> The output would have no prefixes.  As Alex pointed out, it is easier
> and more direct to add those after the fact if needed.

Agreed.

> Care to pronounce on it?

Rather not yet.

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