Thanks, Steven.
On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 10:11 PM, Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info> wrote: > Eric Snow wrote: > >> Anyone know the story behind the lower-case names for the >> non-exception built-in types (like list and type)? I am guessing that >> they were originally factory functions that, at some point, graduated >> to full types; and the names were kept lower-case for backward >> compatibility. > > Exactly. > > [steve@sylar ~]$ python1.5 > Python 1.5.2 (#1, Apr 1 2009, 22:55:54) [GCC 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat > 4.1.2-27)] on linux2 > Copyright 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam >>>> type(int) > <type 'builtin_function_or_method'> > > >> However, if we were to consider making a change for Python 4, I am not >> sure how I feel about Int("5") over int("5"). Maybe it would be >> Integer("5"). >> >> Regardless, perhaps the type names are still lower-case for some other >> valid reason. If so, I would love to know what that is. Is there any >> merit to having lower-cased class names? > > > Backwards compatibility and tradition. > > Many languages have functions to convert a value into a string, integer or > float, which are usually written something like str(), int() and float(). > It would seem strange to write them as Str(), Int() and Float() in Python > just because they happen to be types. > > Maybe in Python 4000 there will be a push to rationalise the case of > built-in types. > > > > -- > Steven > > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list