On 2015-08-26 12:53, Mike Miller wrote:

We've already acquiesced to arbitrary expressions, so this is a small further
step, icing on the cake, no?  I believe Guido mentioned something about
"half-measures" in one of his messages.

        There's no comparison between "arbitrary expressions" and "new syntax for shell shortcuts".  "Arbitrary expressions" are arbitrary Python expressions, so that just means being able to do what you can already do in Python, with Python syntax, in Python strings.  This includes being able to access environment variables, since you can already do that with a Python expression.  These shell shortcuts are just a way to open a back door that would bring all of shell syntax into Python, and add new complications to Python's own syntax as well.  I see quick-and-dirty shell scripting as pretty small potatoes in the scheme of things Python can be used for; it's not worth changing the language in any significant way to a accommodate that.