[Python-ideas] PEP 485: A Function for testing approximate equality

[Paul Moore]

On 26 January 2015 at 06:39, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
>> > Note that in this case, at least, we do want a symmetric version of
>> > "is_close", since neither guess nor new_guess is "correct", they are
>> > both approximations.
>>
>> true, but you are also asking the question -- is the new_guess much
>> different that guess. Which points to a asymmetric test -- but either would
>> work.
>
> I can see we're going to have to argue about the "Close To" versus
> "Close" distinction :-)
>
> I suggest that in the interest of not flooding everyone's inboxes, we
> take that off-list until we have either a concensus or at least
> agreement that we cannot reach concensus.

Does it need to go off-list? I'm still unclear about the arguments
over asymmetric vs symmetric (I suspect, as you alluded to earlier,
that they reflect a more fundamental problem, which is that there are
2 different types of use case with different constraints) so I'd like
to at least be aware of the content of any discussion...

Paul