[Python-3000] Test and Assign [was: More wishful thinking]

[Kendall Clark]

On Apr 18, 2006, at 12:24 PM, Bill Janssen wrote:

>>> Presumably a reference to a Python symbol would be not just the  
>>> symbol
>>> name string, but also an indicator of the namespace of the symbol.
>>
>> That would be something very new -- nothing like that was
>> implied by the original suggestion, and no other language
>> I know of that has symbols gives them any such powers.
>
> Really?  Common Lisp symbols have the form "[<package>:]<name>", where
> <package> defaults to the local namespace (well, actually the default
> is a bit more complicated).

Exactly. I tried to explicitly distinguish between symbols in Python  
(as I suggested them) and symbols in Common Lisp, where they are  
significantly different. I see you (Bill) are -1 on them anyway,  
which is fine, but I wasn't suggesting CL-like symbols for Py3K, FWIW.

>   The original poster was suggesting
> ":<name>", which I suppose I read in its Lisp interpretation as a
> symbol in the KEYWORD package.

Yes, I think that's exactly right. (Ruby symbols are essentially CL  
keywords, as I understand things, and I was really suggesting Ruby- 
like symbols for Py3K.)

Cheers,
Kendall