On Sun, Jun 19, 2022 at 12:21:50AM -0700, Lucas Wiman wrote:
Using either * or / could lead to some odd inconsistencies where a missing space is very consequential, eg: x, / = foo # fine x, /= foo # syntax error? x / = foo # syntax error x /= foo # fine, but totally different from the first example.
Good point! Despite what people say, Python does not actually have significant whitespace (or at least, no more than most other languages). It has significant *indentation*, which is not quite the same. So in general, although we *recommend* spaces around the equals sign, we shouldn't *require* it. If `/=` and `/ =` have different meanings, then we shouldn't use the slash for this. Likewise for the asterisk `* =`.
That said, the * syntax feels intuitive in a way that / doesn’t. I’d suggest: x, *… = foo This seems unambiguous and fairly self-explanatory.
"Self-explanatory". This is how we got Perl and APL o_O What do we need the star for? x, *... = items x, ... = items Convince me that adding another meaning for the star symbol is a good idea. (That's assuming that we want the feature at all.) -- Steve