[Python-ideas] Floating point contexts in Python core

[Steven D'Aprano]

On 11/10/12 09:56, Alexander Belopolsky wrote:

> I gave this idea +float('inf') in the other thread and was thinking
>  about it since. I  am now toying with the idea to unify float and
>decimal in Python.  IEEE combined their two FP standards in one
>  recently, so we have a precedent for this.
>
> We can start by extending decimal to support radix 2 and once that
>  code is mature enough and has accelerated code for platform formats
>  (single, double, long double),

I don't want to be greedy, but supporting minifloats would be a real
boon to beginners trying to learn how floats work.


>we can replace Python float with the
>  new fully platform independent IEEE 754 compliant implementation.
>We can even supply a legacy context to support some current warts.

This all sounds very exciting, but also like a huge amount of work.



-- 
Steven