I also cc python-dev to see if anybody here is strongly in favor or against this inclusion.
Put me down for a strong -1. The proposal would occasionally save a few keystokes but comes at the expense of giving Python a more Perlish look and a more arcane feel. One of the things I like about Python is that I can walk non-programmers through the code and explain what it does. The examples in PEP 505 look like a step in the wrong direction. They don't "look like Python" and make me feel like I have to decrypt the code to figure-out what it does. timeout ?? local_timeout ?? global_timeout 'foo' in (None ?? ['foo', 'bar']) requested_quantity ?? default_quantity * price name?.strip()[4:].upper() user?.first_name.upper() Raymond