Steven, > Did you see Nick Coghlan's post? > http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-September/056076.html > I found his arguments to be reasonably compelling.
You were already convinced on Friday, so with you, he was preaching to the choir. I'm not surprised you found those "arguments" compelling. I did not. I thought it was rather weak. The "points" he makes seem either irrelevant or style judgements, and many seem mischaracterized by the words used. Point by point: > "Print as statement" => printing sequences nicely is a pain > "Print as function" => extended call syntax deals with sequences nicely True, but I see it as a weakness in the Python string formatting language, instead of a weakness with "print". I think that print should be extended with a printf-like format argument (or replaced with a "printf" statement), and that the formatting available in this format argument should handle this complaint. > "Print as statement" => can't easily change the separator > "Print as function" => keyword argument handles the separator nicely So what? To begin with, "print" users have been "changing the separator" for years by doing string concatentation where it matters. And there's always file.write() for those who need it. > "Print as statement" => trailing comma suppresses newline by magic > "Print as function" => keyword argument handles the line terminator nicely This is a somewhat argumentative way of writing this. It would be better put as "newline emission control is performed syntactically", which I see as neutral. Style judgement. > "Print as statement" => redirection is via a magic symbol > "Print as function" => keyword argument handles redirection nicely This is a somewhat argumentative way of writing this. It would be better put as "output redirection is indicated syntactically", which I see as neutral. Style judgement. I might write this point as "Print as statement" => redirection is via a cool magic symbol "Print as function" => redirection done with a boring wordy keyword arg See what I mean? > "Print as statement" => can't easily save 'settings' for re-use > "Print as function" => can use functional.partial to create custom version So what? Who in the world thought up this as a reasonable feature for "print"? Oh, well: file a feature request and see what happens. I think what Nick really is asking for is a better print statement -- and there's no particularly good reason to move to a function to attain that end. Let's add a good format specifier to "print", instead. Bill _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
