Python Gotcha with Octal Numbers

[Richard Steiner]

Here in alt.folklore.computers,
claird at starbase.neosoft.com (Cameron Laird) spake unto us, saying:

>In article <130220020751360934%jwbaxter at spamcop.net>,
>John W. Baxter <jwbaxter at spamcop.net> wrote:
>			.
>>Did the elves at AT&T pick up the "leading 0 means octal" from
>>something earlier, or did they invent this stupidity themselves?
>			.
>OK, folks, how far back *can* we trace this?  My
>mind associates it with DEC systems, going back
>to the '60s, but I couldn't find any confirmation
>of that in a quick search.

I've seen the leading-zero-means-octal convention used rather heavily
in documentation dated 1967-1968 in a UNIVAC 1106/1108 context.

It seems to have been a fairly well-established convention at that
point in time, at least in the UNIVAC world.

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