note that there is a FAQ about this: https://docs.python.org/3/faq/design.html#why-are-colons-required-for-the-if-while-def-class-statements
And if you google hard enough (my 30 seconds wasn't enough), I'm pretty sure you can find a description of actual usability tests (if informal) mack in the day that indicated that the colon was helpful for readability, if not for computer parsing. -CHB On Sun, Jan 19, 2020 at 7:49 AM Random832 <random...@fastmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, Jan 17, 2020, at 21:32, Josh Rosenberg wrote: > > The colon remains syntactically necessary in some cases, particularly > > to disambiguate cases involving one-lining (no block involved). Stupid > > example: If the colon is optional, what does: > > I was only proposing making it optional in the multi-line case. > > The following in the grammar: > > [anywhere it appears]: ... ':' suite > suite: simple_stmt | NEWLINE INDENT stmt+ DEDENT > > would be replaced with > > [whatever]: ... compound_body > compound_body: ':' simple_stmt | [':'] NEWLINE INDENT stmt+ DEDENT > > (I don't understand how TYPE_COMMENT interacts with NEWLINE/INDENT/DEDENT > well enough to do the same for func_body_suite in terms of the actual > grammar) > _______________________________________________ > Python-ideas mailing list -- python-ideas@python.org > To unsubscribe send an email to python-ideas-le...@python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-ideas.python.org/ > Message archived at > https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-ideas@python.org/message/UGS2WPCEUWVOZFRZ6W2ZSDVN44OMSDG4/ > Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/ > -- Christopher Barker, PhD Python Language Consulting - Teaching - Scientific Software Development - Desktop GUI and Web Development - wxPython, numpy, scipy, Cython
_______________________________________________ Python-ideas mailing list -- python-ideas@python.org To unsubscribe send an email to python-ideas-le...@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-ideas.python.org/ Message archived at https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-ideas@python.org/message/TZPIR2W7NE6ASVT5LFPMNZJ6K2N3J3SY/ Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
