I don't do twitter, so hadn't seen Raymond's comment. But I agree that
`{*()}` is too-clever-by-half. Moreover, it's the same character count as
`set()`, so it doesn't even save anything.
Using five characters to create an empty `set()` really isn't that many. I
do that all the time. Proposals to get that down to three characters don't
feel like any big win. Actually, I've largely gotten in the habit of
writing `list()` and `dict()` as well when I want to start with empty
ones. I suppose the fact I do that is influenced by having to do it with
`set()`; but even beyond that, I find it jumps out in intent more than the
display forms.
The pattern of "Create an empty collection, then add stuff in a loop" is
quite common, and emphasizing which type of collection is being used is
useful. Moreover, the type might be `Queue()`, or `deque()` or `Counter()`
as well, and I don't expect or want literals for every possible collection.
On Fri, Apr 9, 2021 at 5:43 PM Ricky Teachey
On Fri, Apr 9, 2021 at 3:20 AM Serhiy Storchaka
wrote: 08.04.21 19:58, ucodery@gmail.com пише:
I would like to propose adding literal syntax to allow creation of an empty set without the need to call the type constructor. I believe the best choice for such a literal, and one that has been proposed before, is `{,}`.
You can now use `{*()}` as a syntax for empty set.
Interestingly, Raymond Hettinger recently had a post on twitter specifically deriding this usage as obfuscatory, and expressing his preference that people not do it (and use set() instead).
https://twitter.com/raymondh/status/1372376414184296448
I tend to agree with him on that... I have no opinion on whether set should be given its own "empty repr literal", but I don't think {*()} is a useful suggestion to give people who want one.
--- Ricky.
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