ANN: Experimental Number Types (Integer, Rational, Floats)

[Cedric Adjih]

M.-A. Lemburg <mal at lemburg.com> wrote:
> Paul Prescod wrote:
>> 
>> "M.-A. Lemburg" wrote:
>> >
>> >...
>> >
>> > from mx.Number import *
>> > f = Float(3.141)
>> > r1 = Rational(3.141)
>> > r2 = Rational(2, 3)
>> > i = Integer("1231231231231231231231231")
>> 
>> Wouldn't you more often make a rational from a string instead of a
>> float? The float loses precision and the rational loses performance so
>> you've got the worst of both worlds. :)
>
> The normal way to create a Rational is to write Rational(2, 3).
> The next release will also have a string parser for rational
> numbers (in the format "2/3" and probably "12 2/3" too).
                                             ^^^^^^
					     ^^^^^^
Just a note:
This one is cultural and could generate lots of confusion.
The only way I can parse it is 12*2/3 (I'm French).
No French book (I know of) uses this notation: 38/3 or 12+2/3
is used instead. It's as if you wrote the complex number
3+4j as "3 4j" (look: "3 4j + 4 5j * 1 7j", hmmm...).

-- Cedric