[Python-ideas] Hexadecimal floating literals

[Antoine Pitrou]

Le 22/09/2017 à 19:15, Tim Peters a écrit :
> I've seen plenty of people on StackOverflow who (a) don't understand
> hex notation for integers; and/or (b) don't understand scientific
> notation for floats.  Nothing is self-evident about either; they both
> have to be learned at first.

Sure.  But, unless I'm mistaken, most people learn about the scientific
notation as teenagers (that was certainly my case at least, and that was
not from my parents AFAIR).  Which of them learn about hexadecimal float
notation at the same time?

> But if they see a rare:
> 
>     x = float.fromhex("0x1.aaap-4")
> 
> they can Google for "python fromhex" and find the docs themselves at
> once.  The odd method name makes it highly "discoverable", and I think
> that's a feature for rare gimmicks with a small, specialized audience.

Basically agreed.  Moreover, "float.fromhex" spells it out, while the
literal syntax does not even make it obvious it's a floating-point
number at all.

Regards

Antoine.