[Python-3000] Low-hanging fruit: change interpreter prompt?

[Nick Coghlan]

Greg Ewing wrote:
> Guido van Rossum wrote:
>> The deficiencies of email shouldn't be dictating the language.
> 
> The interpreter prompt is hardly part of the language,

Except that the doctest module and the prevalence of interactive prompt 
snippets in the documentation mean that it *is* effectively part of at least 
the standard library, even if not the language proper.

> and I don't think it would be unreasonable to make a
> small change here to avoid unnecessarily conflicting
> with a well-established convention (I wouldn't call
> it a "deficiency").

True, but the workaround to align the two conventions if you work with email a 
lot (i.e., including "sys.ps1 = '.>>> '" or similar in your PYTHONSTARTUP 
script) is simple enough that it just doesn't seem worth the hassle of 
changing all the doctests and various other bits of documentation to reflect a 
new default interactive prompt.

All a somewhat moot discussion though, given that Guido has explicitly stated 
that *he* wants to leave it alone, and he wins as the BDFL* :)

Cheers,
Nick.

*Bikeshed Discussion Finishing Leader, perhaps? ;)

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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