"Hendrik van Rooyen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > Now look me in the eye and tell me that you find > > > the mix of proper German and English keywords > > > beautiful. > > > > I can't admit that, but I find that using German > > class and method names is beautiful. The rest around > > it (keywords and names from the standard library) > > are not English - they are Python. > > MvL: > > (look me in the eye and tell me that "def" is > > an English word, or that "getattr" is one) > > > HvR: > LOL - true - but a broken down assembler programmer like me > does not use getattr - and def is short for define, and for and while > and in are not German.
After an intense session of omphaloscopy, I would like another bite at this cherry. I think my problem is something like this - when I see a line of code like: def frobnitz(): I do not actually see the word "def" - I see something like: define a function with no arguments called frobnitz This "expansion" process is involuntary, and immediate in my mind. And this is immediately followed by an irritated reaction, like: WTF is frobnitz? What is it supposed to do? What Idiot wrote this? Similarly, when I encounter the word "getattr" - it is immediately expanded to "get attribute" and this "expansion" is kind of dependant on another thing, namely that my mind is in "English mode" - I refer here to something that only happens rarely, but with devastating effect, experienced only by people who can read more than one language - I am referring to the phenomenon that you look at an unfamiliar piece of writing on say a signboard, with the wrong language "switch" set in your mind - and you cannot read it, it makes no sense for a second or two - until you kind of step back mentally and have a more deliberate look at it, when it becomes obvious that its not say English, but Afrikaans, or German, or vice versa. So in a sense, I can look you in the eye and assert that "def" and "getattr" are in fact English words... (for me, that is) I suppose that this "one language track" - mindedness of mine is why I find the mix of keywords and German or Afrikaans so abhorrent - I cannot really help it, it feels as if I am eating a sandwich, and that I bite on a stone in the bread. - It just jars. Good luck with your PEP - I don't support it, but it is unlikely that the Python-dev crowd and GvR would be swayed much by the opinions of the egregious HvR. Aesthetics aside, I think that the practical maintenance problems (especially remote maintenance) is the rock on which this ship could founder. - Hendrik -- Philip Larkin (English Poet) : They fuck you up, your mom and dad - They do not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had, and add some extra, just for you. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
