On Wednesday, June 1, 2011 10:17:54 AM UTC-7, OKB (not okblacke) wrote: > Carl Banks wrote: > > > On Tuesday, May 31, 2011 8:57:57 PM UTC-7, Chris Angelico wrote: > >> On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 1:30 PM, Carl Banks wrote: > > Python has several non-integer number types in the standard > > library. The one we are talking about is called float. If the > > type we were talking about had instead been called real, then your > > question might make some sense. But the fact that it's called > > float really does imply that that underlying representation is > > floating point. > > That's true, but that's sort of putting the cart before the horse.
Not really. The (original) question Chris Angelico was asking was, "Is it an implementation detail that Python's non-integer type is represented as an IEEE floating-point?" Which the above is the appropriate answer to. > In response to that, one can just ask: why is this type called "float"? Which is a different question; not the question I was answering, and not one I care to discuss. Carl Banks -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
