[Numpy-discussion] Shouldn't all in-place operations simply return self?

[Charles R Harris]

On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 5:11 PM, eat <e.antero.tammi at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> In a recent thread
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.numeric.general/52772 it was
> proposed that .fill(.) should return self as an alternative for a trivial
> two-liner.
>
> I'm raising now the question: what if all in-place operations indeed could
> return self? How bad this would be? A 'strong' counter argument may be
> found at
> http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-October/038855.html.
>
> But anyway, at least for me. it would be much more straightforward to
> implement simple mini dsl's (
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-specific_language) a much more
> straightforward manner.
>
> What do you think?
>
>
I've read Guido about why he didn't like inplace operations returning self
and found him convincing for a while. And then I listened to other folks
express a preference for the freight train style and found them convincing
also. I think it comes down to a preference for one style over another and
I go back and forth myself. If I had to vote, I'd go for returning self,
but I'm not sure it's worth breaking python conventions to do so.

Chuck









>
> -eat
>
> P.S. FWIW, if this idea really gains momentum obviously I'm volunteering
> to create a PR of it.
>
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