[Python-Dev] New operations in Decimal

[Raymond Hettinger]

| > Am I losing my marbles, or is this a proposal to add the logical
| > operations to FLOATING-POINT?
|
| Sort of. This is a proposal to keep compliant with the General Decimal
| Arithmetic Specification, as we promised.
|
|  http://www2.hursley.ibm.com/decimal/

> I oppose adding this illogical nonsense to Python.  Who would ever use it?

Doesn't matter.  What is more important is that we provide a module that is fully compliant with the specification and passes all of its tests.  The value is in the compliance, not in the relative value of individual parts of the spec.

This is somewhat akin to modules supporting RFC specs or internet protocols.  It is more important to be standard than it is to pick and choose the parts you like.  The same is true of writing ANSI spec compilers -- you write to the spec, not to the language you wish had been adopted.

While I question the sanity of the spec writers in this case, I do trust that overall, they have provided an extremely well thought-out spec, have gone through extensive discussion/feedback cycles, and have provided a thorough test-suite.  It is as good as it gets.


Raymond Hettinger