IMO it was a bad idea to merge 2 ncurses C functions into a single Python function. In the C API, there are two different functions:
* mvwadd_wch(win, y, x, char): 4 arguments * wadd_wch(win, char): 2 arguments The Python curses module could/can have a separated function when (y, x) arguments are needed. Maybe it's not too late to deprecate the current complex API when passing y and x, and add a new function which accept (y, x). As Petr explained, it's a headache to have such very complicated function prototype :-( Think about completion in code editor. What is the expected behavior when pressing TAB key to complete on the code "window.addch(arg, " ? Victor On Tue, Nov 9, 2021 at 1:47 PM Petr Viktorin <encu...@gmail.com> wrote: > A more extreme case is functions with an optional *group*. In curses, > the first two arguments to addch are optional. In `help()` it's > documented as `window.addch([y, x,] ch[, attr=...])` and you can call it > as one of: > > window.addch(ch) > window.addch(ch, attr) > window.addch(y, x, ch) > window.addch(y, x, ch, attr) > > see: https://docs.python.org/3/library/curses.html#curses.window.addch > > Supporting this was a headache for Argument Clinic (PEP 436), and AFAIK > it still isn't possible to express this as an inspect.Signature (PEP 362). > > Allowing non-default arguments after default arguments would mean > introspection tools (and code that uses them) would need to be changed > to prepare for the new possibilities. It's not free. -- Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list -- python-dev@python.org To unsubscribe send an email to python-dev-le...@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-dev.python.org/ Message archived at https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/message/47YCD5UA2JGQEVASBNUTAK7GQ4CLVV7E/ Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
