This is a horrible idea. I proposed to Mr. Fine earlier that we adopt a << operator.
d1 << d2 merges d2 into a copy of d1 and returns it, with keys from d2 overriding keys from d2. On Sat, Mar 9, 2019 at 4:50 PM Jonathan Fine <jfine2...@gmail.com> wrote: > A good starting point for discussing the main idea is: > PEP 465 -- A dedicated infix operator for matrix multiplication > https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0465 > > Matrix multiplication is one of many special binary mathematical > operators. PEP 465 successfully argues the merits of introducing a > special operator for matrix multiplication. This thread starts from a > discussion of the merits of binding dict.update to an operator. (For > update, '+', '|' and '<<' the leading candidate symbols.) > > Matrices and linear algebra are not the only part of mathematics that > is usually expressed with infix operators. Thus, I suggest that the > main questions are: > > 1. In practice, how important are additional infix operators to the > Python community? > 2. Can we harmoniously extend Python to accommodate these new operators? > > Here, from PEP 465, are some highlights of the benefits. > > <quote> > Infix @ dramatically improves matrix code usability at all stages of > programmer interaction. > > A large proportion of scientific code is written by people who are > experts in their domain, but are not experts in programming. > > For these kinds of users, whose programming knowledge is fragile, the > existence of a transparent mapping between formulas and code often > means the difference between succeeding and failing to write that code > at all. > </endquote> > > Most mathematical and scientific formulas can be written in LaTeX > notation, which gives standard names for the infix operators > mathematicians use. > > There is no transparent and obvious mapping from the present operators > to those used in mathematics. > https://docs.python.org/3/reference/lexical_analysis.html?#operators > > Using Unicode symbols for the math operators is probably unwise. > Better, I suggest, is to use the LaTeX names. > > There is some evidence (the wish to bind dict.update to an infix > operator) that outside of mathematics there is a demand for custom > infix operators. > > -- > Jonathan > _______________________________________________ > Python-ideas mailing list > Python-ideas@python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas > Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/ >
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