A modest PEP0238 suggestion

[Stephen Horne]

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001 18:35:14 GMT, matthew.feinstein at jhuapl.edu (Matt
Feinstein) wrote:

>Why not make the operator // do what the -old- division operator did,
>so that the only change that has to be made for backwards
>compatibility is replace all /'s with //'s?

Nice and easy for the hobbyist - NOT a sane option for professional
users who've bet their reputations on Python, and besides.

It's precisely what the PEP is suggesting - change the functionality
of the existing operator for no particularly strong reason, and expect
everyone to change to a *new* operator to support a *different*
functionality.

One minor problem is that according to the PEP the original behaviour
will *not* be supported by *any* single operator - you have to figure
out for every single use whether the change is necessary - it is not a
no-brainer.

More important is all the software that is somehow in-the-field - a
VERY serious problem.