[Python-ideas] Python Numbers as Human Concept Decimal System

[Mark H. Harris]

On Thursday, March 6, 2014 6:36:46 AM UTC-6, Stefan Krah wrote:
>
>
> As I understand, you are suggesting some kind of number system with 
> symbolic representations that can be converted to decimal if needed. 
>
> The topic is so vast that the only chance of it happening is for 
> someone to provide an implementation on PyPI and see if people 
> like it.  There are packages for symbolic mathematics like sympy, 
> perhaps that is a start. 


       Yes, that is correct (in a way). I will respond to this better when 
I respond to Guido, so be sure to read that post.
 

>
> Regarding decimal literals: 
>
> Possible in 3.x, but it would require some investigation if 
> people really want arbitrary precision arithmetic by default 
> rather than e.g. IEEE Decimal64. 
>

       Good.  Dialogue is a good thing. Looking forward to it. 


Regarding decimal floats by default: 
>
> Perhaps in 4.0, but IMO only with *full* backing by the large SciPy 
> and NumPy communities. My guess is that it's not going to happen, not 
> in the least because the literature for floating point algorithms 
> (with proofs!) has an overwhelming focus on binary floating point. 
>

       I know.  Again, when I respond to Guido I'll address this a bit.

   Thanks Stefan, I appreciate your inputs, and your work... keep it up!

marcus 
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