[Edu-sig] The fate of raw_input() in Python 3000

[dblank at brynmawr.edu]

[Does this capture the essense of the discussion? I know some said that
they don't use them, and this would not stop them from not using them :)
-Doug]

Core Python maintainers,

Over on the Python edu-sig, we have been discussing a small aspect of PEP
3100 and its effects on teaching and classroom use. What is at issue is
input() and raw_input(), which have been targeted for removal, and marked
[done]:

http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3100/

Guido suggested in his 2002 "Python Regrets" talk that
eval(sys.stdin.readline()) and sys.stdin.readline() can be used for these,
respectively. That's not quite true of course, because they also have a
prompt. But even that aside, we believe that we would like to keep them
as-is.

I think that we have consensus among (the teachers of edu-sig) that many
of us rely on the ease-of-use of the input() and raw_input() functions for
one simple reason: input() and raw_input() can be used on day-1 of class,
before discussing imports, streams,  strings, eval, or functions. Complete
replacement solutions require discussions of all of those topics.

We believe that their removal goes against the spirit of Python in the
classroom, and Python will be more complicated on the first day of class
because of it.

There were some suggestions that there could be better names for them,
including "ask()" and "askexp()". In any event, we'd rather have them the
way they are than not at all. Of course it is easy to add as a site.py
implementation, but those of us that teach would rather use 100% Pure
Python.

For the complete edu-sig discussion, see:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2006-September/006967.html

Thank you for considering leaving this as is,

The Teachers of Python edu-sig