> > I think you are going against the design of the language here. With only > a handful of critical exceptional cases (None, True, False are the only > ones that come to mind), names can be rebound. >
The following genuinely surprised me. I was trying to show something different in reply, but I think the actual behavior makes the point even more: >>> eval(repr(Ellipsis)) Ellipsis >>> eval(repr(...)) Ellipsis >>> Ellipsis = 42 >>> eval(repr(...)) 42 This is *strange* behavior. I don't expect every sequence of characters to round trip `eval(repr())`, but I kinda expect it to be mostly idempotent. >>> foo = "bar" >>> eval(repr(foo)) 'bar' >>> eval(repr(foo)) == eval(repr(eval(repr(foo)))) True >>> eval(repr(None)) == eval(repr(eval(repr(None)))) True Obviously I know there are some repr()'s that cannot be eval()'d. But this isn't the same concern as e.g. a file handle or a user class. I don't find this issue any huge wart in Python, but it's a funny corner. Here's a proposal I'll throw out: Let's change the behavior of the Ellipsis object slightly to have either a .__call__() or .__getitem__() method that returns itself, no matter what argument is passed. Then we could have this behavior: >>> repr(...) ...[Ellipsis] Or >>> repr(...) ...(Ellipsis) I don't know which looks better, but neither look terrible to me. That would produce a more explanatory repr() while also preserving idempotence. -- The dead increasingly dominate and strangle both the living and the not-yet born. Vampiric capital and undead corporate persons abuse the lives and control the thoughts of homo faber. Ideas, once born, become abortifacients against new conceptions.
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