I'm going to offer a bit of clarification to my earlier comment,
since some of it was misinterpreted.
First, what I'm proposing is not intended to affect the
machine-native types at all; the proposal is strictly concerning the
boxed types.
Second, I was not suggesting that all non-integer numeric support be
punted to CPAN.
Third, I was not suggesting that users would have to say things like
"use Num::Float" in order to do basic things.
Treating the support as an "extension" still allows it to be
distributed with Perl itself, and imported by default.
My suggestion is fundamentally about how we might conceptualize the
matter of where non-integer numerics fit in the language.
By conceptualizing them as being more on the fringes rather than the
inner circle, it allows us to make the associated feature set
"bigger" without feeling like we're bloating the core, which includes
possibly splitting and extending Num (and Complex) up into several
more distinct types with their own specified semantics, eg rational
vs float.
In short, it frees us more to not try and shoehorn a complicated
matter into a small space to "avoid bloat", but give it its own space.
I hope that helps.
-- Darren Duncan
