[Python-ideas] Suggestion: Extend integers to include iNaN

[Mital Ashok]

As others have said, I do not think directly changing int is a good idea.
It would break so much existing code if an unexpected iNaN appeared.

I also think having a nan-aware subclass should be the other way around. If
you are expecting a nan-aware int, a regular int would work fine. If you
are expecting an int, a nan-aware int might not work. It seems more like
int is a subclass of nan-aware int.

Another idea is having it as a completely different class. int can be made
a virtual subclass of it. This can be implemented in pure Python too.

However, I do not think there is a strong enough use case for this. The
example given for an integer infinity could have it replaced with a float
infinity. And how iNaN would define operations on it can be completely
unexpected. Throwing an error would be more useful in those places, but if
not possible, float('nan'), None or a custom object could be used (which
one used would be documented). Because there would be too much for Python
to "decide" for how iNaNs would work, it should be left up to user code.
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