On Dec 15, 10:38 pm, Lie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [...] > > Yeah, that's why I consider them too complex for being included as a > core of a general programming language like Python. Nevertheless, > fraction datatype _IS_ elementary enough to be included as core > language feature.
Rationals are not that simple. * Unless you are working under very controlled conditions, rationals very quickly grow enormous numerators and denominators, hence require arbitrary precision integers (which, I concede, are part of Python). * In order to have a canonical representation of integers, they need to be kept in normalised form. * Nobody uses big fractions apart from mathematicians (and maybe bookmakers?). * Having yet another numerical type would make it difficult what type to expect from a calculation. -- Arnaud -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
