Hmmm... I disagree with Chris. I'm definitely -1 on a magic dangling 'foo=' after variable names. And something less than -1 on the even more magic "Lisp symbol that isn't a symbol" ':foo'.
Those are just ugly and mysterious. However, I don't HATE the "mode switch" use of '*' or '**' in function calls. I've certainly written plenty of code where I use the same variable name in the calling scope as I bind in the call. Moreover, function *definitions* have an an analogous mode switch with an isolated '*'. I'm only -0 on the mode switch style. Another thing to learn isn't really work the characters saved. But it's not awful. On Fri, Apr 17, 2020, 9:29 AM Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, Apr 17, 2020 at 8:52 PM Alex Hall <alex.moj...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > >> But this means the reader could miss the star, especially with a very > large function call over multiple lines, and if that reader happens to use > that particular function A LOT and know the parameter order without having > to look they would pretty easily believe the arguments are doing something > different than what is actually happening. > > > > > > Thank you for giving an actual scenario explaining how confusion could > occur. Personally I think it's a very unlikely edge case (particularly > someone comparing argument order to their memory), and someone falsely > thinking that correct code is buggy is not a major problem anyway. > > > > I propose using two asterisks instead of one as the magical argument > separator. `**` is more closely associated with keyword arguments, it's > harder to visually miss, and it avoids the problem mentioned [here]( > https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-ideas@python.org/message/XFZ5VH5DKIFJ423FKCTHXPHDONAO3DFI/) > which I think was a valid point. So a call would look like: > > > > function(**, dunder, invert, private, meta, ignorecase) > > > > All of these mode-switch proposals have the fundamental problem that > you then cannot mix shorthand and longhand forms - once you go > shorthand, suddenly everything has to be shorthand. I don't like that. > The original proposal was entirely self-contained and has a very > simple interpretation. Consider this example of actual production code > (same one as I posted earlier): > > return render_template("index.html", > twitter=twitter, username=user["display_name"], > channel=channel, channelid=channelid, error=error, > setups=database.list_setups(channelid), > sched_tz=sched_tz, schedule=schedule, sched_tweet=sched_tweet, > checklist=database.get_checklist(channelid), > timers=database.list_timers(channelid), > tweets=tweets, > ) > > Aside from the first parameter, everything is keyword args, and there > is no particular order to them. The render_template function doesn't > define a set of parameters - it takes whatever it's given and passes > it along to the template itself. If I could use the "name=" shorthand, > I could write this thus: > > return render_template("index.html", > twitter=, username=user["display_name"], > channel=, channelid=, error=, > setups=database.list_setups(channelid), > sched_tz=, schedule=, sched_tweet=, > checklist=database.get_checklist(channelid), > timers=database.list_timers(channelid), > tweets=, > ) > > Each individual entry can use the shorthand, and it has a well-defined > meaning. The order doesn't define which ones can and can't use > shorthand. > > What's the advantage of a mode switch? This seems perfectly clear to > me without any sort of magical cutoff. > > ChrisA > _______________________________________________ > 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/3HZIDWQWZA6UTYXYZU6IVJIJTFHW3MSK/ > Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/ >
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