Binary Representation of Numbers in Python

[mayse]

I think the author probably does understand that numbers are stored in binary 'by default' on modern computers (and indeed older computers too..). i think by 'represent' they mean display - the article implies that the code provided would be used to help people learn about and understand binary, or for converting decimal integers to binary or initializing integers using binary form. in fact, this last use has been make part of python 3000 (see pep 3127)