I've seen a lot of syntax proposals recently that are based around providing better ways of writing "one liner" styles of code. Typically, the proposals seem to get into trouble because:
1. They duplicate things that can already be done, just not in a single expression/statement. 2. They are seen as over-terse, which is not generally seen as a good thing in Python. However, looking at them from the point of view of someone working at the interactive prompt, they can seem much more attractive. The natural unit of interaction at the command line is the single line. To the extent that (for example) fixing a mistake in a multi-line construct at the command line is a real pain. But these limitations are not inherent to Python - they are problems with the interactive prompt, which is fairly basic[1]. So maybe it's worth looking at the root issue, how to make the interactive prompt easier to use[2]? But that's something of a solved problem. IPython offers a rich interactive environment, for people who find the limitations of the standard interactive prompt frustrating. Would it be worth the standard Python documentation promoting IPython for that role? Maybe even, if IPython is available, allowing the user to configure Python to use it by default as the interactive prompt (a bit like readline, but I dislike the way you can't switch off readline integration if it's installed)? Ideally, if IPython was more readily available, fewer users would be frustrated with Python's existing multi-line constructs. And those that were, would have the option of looking into custom IPython magic commands, before being forced to request language changes. Thoughts? Paul [1] On the other hand, the interactive prompt is a huge part of what makes Python so great - these days, when I have to code in languages that don't have an interactive prompt, it drives me nuts. And even those that do, typically don't have one as good as Python's (in spite of the fact that this whole mail is about needing to improve the Python REPL). [2] My apologies to anyone whose proposal was *not* based around interactive use cases. I'm assuming motives here left, right and centre, so if what I'm saying isn't what you were intending, that's fine. Treat this as an unrelated proposal. _______________________________________________ Python-ideas mailing list Python-ideas@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
