If python was treating it as a text value then int("009") is 9 as you would expect. Even if it wasn't you could do lstrip("0") to remove leading zeroes before converting to an integer.<p>From reading the post it sounds like the faults lies more with the developers inability to use python than pythons inabilities.<p>Also, I know python has functional aspects, but is it really classified as a functional language now?
I'm not sure an article about "functional languages like Python" is going to shed much light on functional languages.<p>Maybe he was thinking of "procedural"?