[Python-ideas] syntax for set

[Steven D'Aprano]

MRAB wrote:

> Let's leave <...> for some future use. (Could they have been used for
> tuples, thus avoiding all the discussions about how "," builds tuples,
> apart from the empty tuple? :-))

But comma *is* the tuple-building operator. This allows us to write:

x, y = p, q
return x, y, z

instead of being forced to including brackets. Are you suggesting that 
commas should be optional?

t = <x y z>

This will be an unfortunate source of errors unless we also drop 
implicit string concatenation (which is too useful to drop!)

t = <"a" "b" 2>  # 2-tuple, not 3

As for using < > for tuples, that leads to such horrors as:

if <a, b> < <c, d>: ...
elif <b, a> > <d, c>: ...

which is too ghastly for words.

Now, can we please stop bike-shedding over something so trivial as a way 
to write an empty set as a literal? What's wrong with just writing set()?


-- 
Steven