Re: [Python-ideas] Default arguments in Python - the return - running out of ideas but...

On Fri, 15 May 2009 02:16:04 pm Tennessee Leeuwenburg wrote:

A thought from another direction...

Any chance we could have the interpreter raise a warning for the case

def foo(a = []): #stuff

?

The empty list and empty dict args would, I imagine, be the two most common mistakes. Showing a warning might, at least, solve the problem of people tripping over the syntax.

I made that same suggestion nine months ago:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2008-August/504701.html

Responses were mixed, some people supported it, others did not, but it went nowhere.