On 5/11/26 21:42, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
On Mon, 11 May 2026 19:51:21 -0500, Tim Daneliuk wrote:
On 5/10/26 19:17, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
A new feature coming in Python 3.15 is the “sentinel” class, useful
for creating custom values to mark the end of sequences of items, that
kind of thing
<https://docs.python.org/3.15/library/functions.html#sentinel>,
<https://peps.python.org/pep-0661/>.
For those times when a simple “None” marker element is not
sufficient, this will be very convenient.
Forgive me, but this smells of Feeping Creaturism to solve a not
very important question at the expense crufting up the language and
decreasing clarity.
In order to be forgiven, you will have to explain why you think so.
Some of us have done enough Python programming that we can see the
utility of such a feature, minor as it is.
I have also done plenty of Python programming (and C, and Fortran, and BASIC,
and
many assemblers, and ...).
I stipulate that there is some utility to a sentinel feature. But it does so
at a
cost. That cost is bloating the language definition with yet another feature
that
has fairly limited application beyond what is already possible.
I've seen this happen over and over again in a variety of languages. "Elegant"
solutions are proposed to legitimate problems but these solutions make the
language bigger, harder to master, and harder to maintain.
True elegance comes from a reduction of complexity and improving regularity
while
expanding utility. It does not come from just gluing on more and more new
features.
I don't maintain Python, and the people who do are certainly welcome to add
anything they want. I simply wanted to observe that - based on past history -
this will eventually lead to a bloated and less usable language.
It's an opinion, not a law of nature ...
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