Paul D. Anderson wrote:
I was browsing the Python spec yesterday and came across this interesting and
useful syntax:
"/" (one slash) means floating point division, e.g. 5/2 = 2.5 even though 5 and
2 are integers
"//" (two slashes) means integer (floor) division, e.g. 5.0//2.0 = 2.0 even
though 5.0 and 2.0 are floats.
I've always been a little troubled by the standard division operator being
dependent on the types of the operands. (I understand the need for it, I just
didn't like it much.) Now here is an elegant (IMHO) solution.
I like the idea of adding a "floating point division", but I think it
should be a *new* feature while the current / and // are left as they
are. How about "./"?
5 / 2 = 2 // Current behavior
5.0 / 2.0 = 2.5 // Current behavior
5 ./ 2 = 2.5 // New behavior
5.0 ./ 2.0 = 2.5 // It always floating-point divides
IOW, ./ is short for "cast operands to double and divide".
If ./ proves too hard to parse (I think it might require some
lookahead), then /^ might work.
