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On Apr 20, 2020, at 16:24, M.-A. Lemburg <mal@egenix.com> wrote:
On 20.04.2020 19:43, Andrew Barnert via Python-ideas wrote:
On Apr 20, 2020, at 01:06, M.-A. Lemburg <mal@egenix.com> wrote:
The current version already strikes me as way too complex. It's by far the most complex piece of grammar we have in Python:
funcdef: 'def' NAME parameters ['->' test] ':' [TYPE_COMMENT] func_body_suite
But nobody’s proposing changing the function definition syntax here, only the function call syntax. Which is a lot less hairy. It is still somewhat hairy, but nowhere near as bad, so this argument doesn’t really apply.
True, I quoted the wrong part of the grammar for the argument, sorry. I meant this part:
https://docs.python.org/3/reference/expressions.html#calls
which is simpler, but not really much, since the devil is in the details.
Let’s just take one of the variant proposals under discussion here, adding ::identifier to dict displays. This makes no change to the call grammar, or to any of the call-related bits, or any other horribly complicated piece of grammar. It just changes key_datum (a nonterminal referenced only in dict_display) from this: expression ":" expression | “**” or_expr … to this: expression ":" expression | “::” identifier | “**” or_expr That’s about as simple as any syntax change ever gets. Which is still not nothing. But you’re absolutely right that a big and messy change to function definition grammar would have a higher bar to clear than most syntax proposals—and for the exact same reason, a small and local change to dict display datum grammar has a lower bar than most syntax proposals.