PEP0238 lament

[Erik Max Francis]

Duncan Grisby wrote:

> I agree, by the way, that if we were discussing a new language, it
> would be sensible to use / for fractional division and // for integer
> division (and just as sensible to do the reverse). I'm amazed at the
> passion behind people arguing about what, to me, is an arbitrary
> language choice. But that isn't the issue here. We aren't designing a
> new language, we're modifying an existing one.

Agreed.  If / were float (or rational) division from the beginning, then
I would have no complaints, even if I personally would prefer int/int ==
int.

The real problem here isn't whether or not float/rational division is or
isn't a good idea, it's that what is being proposed will break existing
code.

The proponents of this PEP have been insisting there will be plenty of
time to make the switch, which is fine, but it neglects preexisting code
which has been passed around and is far afield from the original author,
or worse yet, code which is in place at a client site and which isn't
changed easily at all.

I find it pretty horrifying that this change is even being seriously
considered much less is evidently going forward.  That I find the
benefits (namely, making the language easier for novices to understand;
integer division is not very hard to understand and have not known
anybody learning programmer for which this was absolutely a deal breaker
and totally inhibited their ability to learn a language) to be of
dubious value only makes it more disturbing.

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