Greg Ewing wrote:
Taking a step back from all this, why does Python allow
NaNs to arise from computations *at all*?
The real question should be, why does Python treat all NANs as
signalling NANs instead of quiet NANs? I don't believe this helps anyone.
+Inf and -Inf are arguably useful elements of the algebra,
yet Python insists on raising an exception for 1.0./0.0
instead of returning an infinity.
I would argue that Python is wrong to do so.
As I've mentioned a couple of times now, 20 years ago Apple felt that
NANs and INFs weren't too complicated for non-programmers using
Hypercard. There's no sign that Apple were wrong to expose NANs and INFs
to users, no flood of Hypercard users confused by NAN inequality.
--
Steven
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