[Python-Dev] Mixing float and Decimal -- thread reboot
Greg Ewing
greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz
Thu Mar 25 01:32:49 CET 2010
Raymond Hettinger wrote:
> Conceptually, it's a bug. The numeric tower treats non-complex
> numbers as special cases of complex where the imaginary
> component is zero (that's why the non-complex types all support
> real/imag), and since complex numbers are not allowed to compare
> to themselves, they shouldn't compare to anything else either.
There's a contradiction in there somewhere. If you believe
that a non-complex is equivalent to a complex with zero
imaginary part, then you *should* be able to compare two
complexes provided that their imaginary parts are both
zero.
(I don't think that should be the case, BTW -- complex
numbers live on a two-dimensional plane, and from a
geometrical point of view there's no reason to single
out the x-axis and give it special treatment.)
--
Greg
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