<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On Mar 2, 2012, at 2:01 PM, Gregory P. Smith wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; ">speaking of range... I think start and stop are plenty obvious, but I'd like to allow step to be specified as a keyword.</span></blockquote><br></div><div>range() has been around 20+ years and this has never been requested.</div><div>In my teaching of Python, it is never arisen as an issue.</div><div>AFAICT, there isn't any code that would be better if step were written as a keyword.</div><div><br></div><div>The only expressed motivation for the change is "I'd like" it.</div><div>There should be a higher bar for changing builtins.</div><div><br></div><div>Many of the proposals in this thread are gratuitous and will create</div><div>unnecessary work for other people who have to change anything</div><div>that purports to have a range-like interface, people who have to</div><div>change the other Python implementations, folks who who have </div><div>to remember which version of Python supports it and which other </div><div>slice-like functions would also take the argument etc.</div><div><br></div><div>ISTM that having a ton of tiny nit changes to the language</div><div>doesn't make it better. Instead, effort should be directed</div><div>as substantive changes (better https support, completing xmlrpc, etc).</div><div>Micro rearrangements of the language and a real PITA for folks</div><div>who have to go back-and-forth between different versions of Python.</div><div>So, we should raise the bar to something higher than "I'd like feature X"</div><div>and ask for examples of code that would be better or for user requests</div><div>or some actual demonstration of need. ISTM that 20 years of history</div><div>with range() suggests that no one needs this (nor have I seen a need</div><div>in any other language with functions that take a start/stop/step).</div><div><br></div><div>Raymond</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br></body></html>