Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them.

From	Random832 <random832@fastmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Subject	Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them.
Date	2015-11-14 17:53 -0500
Message-ID	<mailman.338.1447541659.16136.python-list@python.org> (permalink)
References	(3 earlier) <56469f14$0$1612$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <mailman.314.1447470111.16136.python-list@python.org> <5646c95a$0$1597$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <mailman.329.1447515842.16136.python-list@python.org> <87vb94ikuv.fsf@elektro.pacujo.net>

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Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> writes:
> Actually, the real question is, is the unary - *really* so useful that
> it merits existence or is it just something that was mindlessly copied
> into programming languages from elementary school arithmetics?

The alternative, if you want to be able to specify negative numbers at
all, is to put - in the literal syntax. So what's "x-1"?

I suppose you could use some *different* symbol in the literal syntax
for negative numbers. I had a calculator once that used a different
symbol (looked like a small superscript minus sign) for it. But Python
is limited to ASCII for basic syntax elements for good reasons.

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Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-11-14 09:42 +1100
  Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-11-14 13:40 +1100
    Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-11-14 14:01 +1100
      Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-11-14 16:40 +1100
        Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2015-11-14 08:43 -0700
          Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2015-11-14 18:52 +0200
            Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-11-15 04:04 +1100
              Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2015-11-16 19:19 +1300
            Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2015-11-14 10:04 -0700
              Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2015-11-14 23:53 +0200
              Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2015-11-16 19:15 +1300
                Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-11-16 23:11 +1100
                Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Dave Farrance <df@see.replyto.invalid> - 2015-11-17 09:54 +0000
            Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2015-11-14 10:13 -0700
            Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Random832 <random832@fastmail.com> - 2015-11-14 17:53 -0500
              Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2015-11-15 02:12 +0200
              Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-11-15 12:14 +1100
                Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-11-15 11:09 -0500
                Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2015-11-16 19:11 +1300
            Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2015-11-15 00:49 +0000
          Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-11-15 13:08 +1100
            Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-11-15 13:23 +1100
              Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-11-17 00:17 +1100
                Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-11-17 00:27 +1100
        Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-11-15 03:59 +1100
    Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2015-11-13 20:45 -0700
    Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2015-11-13 20:48 -0700
    Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-11-14 14:56 +1100
    Re: Problems using struct pack/unpack in files, and reading them. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-11-14 14:57 +1100

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