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

[Andrew Barnert]

From: MRAB <python at mrabarnett.plus.com>

Sent: Thursday, March 6, 2014 6:12 PM


> On 2014-03-07 01:52, Andrew Barnert wrote:
>>  Of course there's a lot of room for bikeshedding the suffix. The 
>> "f"
>>  suffix from C implies 32-bit float as opposed to 64-bit double, which
>>  is obviously wrong. The "d" suffix from C might be confusing as
>>  distinguishing "binary, not decimal". Maybe "b"?
>> 
> Calling the floating-point class "float" implies 32-bit float as
> opposed to 64-bit double, doesn't it? :-)

Sure. It's not as strong an implication as an "f" suffix, because many languages (and applications) have types named float, while "0.3f" is a lot more C-family-specific. Which means "float" wasn't a perfect choice—but it was still probably the best choice. And it's certainly possible that "f" is the best choice for the suffix despite this problem. If there were an obvious best answer that had no problems, there wouldn't be any room for bikeshedding.