Settable defaulting to decimal instead of float

[georgefischhofhu]

BPO	29223
Nosy	@vstinner, @DimitrisJim, @george@fischhof.hu

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2017-01-10.14:51:26.028>
created_at = <Date 2017-01-10.14:28:10.462>
labels = ['interpreter-core', 'type-feature', 'invalid']
title = 'Settable defaulting to decimal instead of float'
updated_at = <Date 2017-01-10.14:51:26.027>
user = 'https://github.com/georgefischhofhu'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2017-01-10.14:51:26.027>
actor = 'vstinner'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2017-01-10.14:51:26.028>
closer = 'vstinner'
components = ['Interpreter Core']
creation = <Date 2017-01-10.14:28:10.462>
creator = 'georgefischhof'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 29223
keywords = []
message_count = 5.0
messages = ['285114', '285117', '285118', '285119', '285121']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['vstinner', 'Jim Fasarakis-Hilliard', 'georgefischhof']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'not a bug'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue29223'
versions = []

[georgefischhofhu]

Hi There,

Settable defaulting to decimal instead of float

It would be good to be able to use decimal automatically instead of float if there is a setting. For example an environment variable or a flag file.

Where and when accuracy is more important than speed, the user could set this flag, and calculate with decimal numbers as learned in the school.

I think several people would use this function

Best regards,
George

[DimitrisJim]

This issue (and your other bpo-29223) would probably be a better for the python-ideas mailing list rather than the bug tracker.

See the FAQ in the Developer Guide for Python https://docs.python.org/devguide/faq.html#suggesting-changes

Both issues should probably be closed.

[vstinner]

You are not the first one to propose the idea.

2012: "make decimal the default non-integer instead of float?"
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2012-September/016250.html

2014: "Python Numbers as Human Concept Decimal System"
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2014-March/026436.html

Related discussions:

2008: "Decimal literal?"
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2008-December/002379.html

2015: "Python Float Update"
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2015-June/033787.html

PEP-240 "Adding a Rational Literal to Python".

[vstinner]

This issue (and your other bpo-29223) ...

I guess that you mean issue bpo-29224 "OS related file operations (copy, move, delete, rename...) should be placed into one module".

[vstinner]

Jim is right, I close the bug. The *bug* tracker is not the best place to propose ideas: please use the python-ideas mailing list ;-)