Confusion about numbers

[Tim Roberts]

I thought the special status of "long" numbers had gone by the wayside, so
that all integers were the same, but clearly I was mistaken:

C:\tmp>python
Python 2.2 (#28, Dec 21 2001, 12:21:22) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> i = 3L
>>> i
3L
>>> print i
3
>>> print `i`
3L
>>> print str(i)
3
>>> print repr(i)
3L
>>>

Is there a reason why we still need the "L" here?
-- 
- Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
  Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.