I think the fundamental issue with the degree sign is quite simply that it is *not-ASCII*.  If we are willing to expand the syntax of Python to include other characters, then we should just use Unicode Character 'DOT OPERATOR' (U+22C5), which is actually the *exact* correct thing, not just "something that looks a bit similar."

If we are worried about "stuff that's easy to enter on the keyboard", there's no reason AZERTY is necessarily more relevant than Dubeolsik or JCUKEN.  And if we aim for "something that looks similar" we probably have lots of options on some keyboard layout in the world.




On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 7:54 AM, Joseph Martinot-Lagarde <joseph.martinot-lagarde@m4x.org> wrote:
Robert Kern <robert.kern@...> writes:

>
> On 2014-03-14 13:20, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> > On 14.03.2014 12:25, Robert Kern wrote:
> >> On 2014-03-14 10:16, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> >>
> >>> I have some questions:
> >>>
> >>> 1. Since in math, the operator is usually spelt "·" (the center dot,
> >>>      or "." but that's already reserved for methods and attributes in
> >>>      Python), why not try to use that instead of " <at> " (which in Python
> >>>      already identifies decorators) ?
> >>
> >> I think the current feeling of the Python core team is against
including non-ASCII characters in the
> >> language's keywords or operators. Even if that were not so, I would
still recommend against it
> >> because it would be quite difficult to type. I don't know off-hand the
key combination to do it on
> >> my native system, and it would change from system to system.
> >
> > That's a fair argument. How about using the degree symbol instead: "°" ?
> >
> > (A ° B).T == B.T ° A.T
>
> Your point is taken, though. I do find these smaller symbols more readable
and
> similar to standard mathematical notation than an  <at>  sign, which is as
big or
> bigger than most uppercase characters. Unfortunately, ASCII leaves us few
> single-character options.
>

Putting aside tha ascii problem, ° is easily written using a AZERTY
keyboard. It is smaller and less convoluted than @ and looks like the
mathematical notation for function composition, which is similar to matrix
multiplication.
Still, not ascii and not displayed on every keyboard...


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