Comment on PEP-0238

[Tim Peters]

[Tim]
> If you want to turn every + - * / etc into a long-winded function
> call ...

[Greg Ewing]
> No, I don't want to do that, obviously.

That's good to know.

> But I also wouldn't like to see a piece of implicit state controlling
> the number of digits I get out of arithmetic operations.

If precision is adjustable, seems to me it's "usually explicit" (which you
just said you don't want) or "usually implicit" (which you just said you
don't want).  If you have another idea, let's hear it -- but remember I said
at the start that the issue can't be wished away.

BTW, if you're running on a Pentium box, there's a piece of implicit state
controlling the number of digits (bits) you get out of every fp operation.
How much of a burden has that been to you?  My guess is "none", and, if so,
why assume it would be worse for decimal fp?

> I've had experiences with that in Hypertalk, all of them bad.

Haven't used it, and didn't find any reference docs on the web that admitted
to such a thing in Hypertalk; seemed to imply it handled 19-digit
arithmetic, with a numberFormat property to control (only) *display*
precision.  So, sorry, but this broth is too thin to choke on <wink>.