PEP0238 lament

[Tim Peters]

[Stephen Horne]
> But Perl had a good try...
>
> I'm told "1" / 3 gives 0.333333333333333333 <giggles>

Near the end of the group discussion I mentioned before, to try to get
consensus on *something* I asked whether anyone was in favor of Python
automagically converting strings to numbers "in arithmetic contexts".  I
thought I was joking -- and turns out I was <wink>.  Nobody spoke in favor
of that.

Then we went to the all-conference lunch, and I happened to sit next to a
Python newbie fresh from Perl.  He hadn't been at the numeric discussion.
His first question was "hey!  how come I have to convert my strings to ints
when I add?  I didn't have to do that in Perl!".  Arghghghghgh.

nothing-new-under-the-snake-ly y'rs  - tim