The python example is good here, because originally the Python language had separate types for unbounded-integer and machine-sized-int. This happened as part of

The python example is good here, because originally the Python language had separate types for unbounded-integer and machine-sized-int. This happened as part of the move from Python 2.x to Python 3.x, right along with changing strings from byte-arrays to unicode.[1] There has been lots of fuss and even pushback about the change to use unicode instead of byte arrays, but I have never heard anyone complain about semantics OR performance of the switch to a single integer type. [1] - http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0237/ http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0237/