Ian Kelly <ian.g.ke...@gmail.com>: > I don't know of anybody who would consider that good design, and the > "precision" field in printf-style formatting isn't good design either. > But it has history behind it, so does that put it in the right?
Apparently, the original intent for the field was for precision only, and the syntax of placing the precision after a dot reinforces the notion. Later, the field found other neat uses and people didn't think of going back and renaming the field in source code and all of the documentation. For Unix hackers, this was a neat trick, a laudable hack. A somewhat similar example is the "execute" permission flag on Unix files. On regular files, it expresses whether the file can be executed. On directory files, it expresses whether it can be "entered". Just as you can enter into philosophical discussions about whether integers or strings can have a precision, you can debate whether a directory can be executed. Marko -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
