[Python-3000] symbols?

[Kendall Clark]

Folks,

One thing I'd really like to see in Python 3000 is support for first- 
class symbols, with literal syntax. Stealing syntax from Ruby would  
work for me:

	def web_dispatch("/bank-account", :GET, retrieve_account): pass

The lack thereof in Python is a wart I tend to run into in Python. I  
end up having to use strings, but not really using them for their  
stringiness (never using any of their methods, for example). Which  
works, but is sorta ugly. So I end up making classes and instances,  
but these are really just wrappers around strings, when all I really  
want is a symbol.

(For example, in my SemWeb lab @ UMD, we built a Rete rule engine in  
Python that's being used in some SemWeb projects. We gave a talk  
about it at the last PyCon in DC. Symbols in that project would have  
made life a lot easier, instead of making up a bunch of classes that  
were just wrappers around strings. Which is: (1) really boring, (2)  
error-prone (because of (1)), and (3) generally not fun.)

I also think, though I'm not really gonna argue the point, that  
having symbols would clean up lots of different sorts of APIs that  
use strings or class instances where symbols would work perfectly  
nicely. Some people claim the point of symbols is to save memory over  
repeated string usage, but I don't care about that, and I make claims  
about any kind of performance enhancement. I think symbols in Python  
would just make the language more fun.

I don't know if the Ruby syntax for symbols, :foo, will work in  
Python (though I think visually it's a good thing), but it would be  
really nice to have symbols with *some* syntax in Python 3000.

Again, this design request is based on aesthetics and fun: having  
symbols would make Python more fun.

Cheers,
Kendall Clark

PS--I'd also like "?", "!", and "-" to be legal characters in  
function, method, and variable names, but I won't push my luck -- and  
I seem to remember Guido saying that would never happen, at some  
point back in the day. Fair enough. ;>