[Python-Dev] At the interactive port

[Guido van Rossum]

> I was planning to submit a patch that adds the built-in routines
> 
>     sys.display
>     sys.displaytb
> 
>     sys.__display__
>     sys.__displaytb__
> 
> sys.display(obj) would be implemented as 'print repr(obj)'
> and sys.displaytb(tb, exc) would call the same built-in
> traceback printer we all know and love.

Sure.  Though I would recommend to separate the patch in two parts,
because their implementation is totally unrelated.

> I assumed that sys.__stdin__ was added to make it easier to
> restore sys.stdin to its original value.  In the same vein,
> sys.__display__ and sys.__displaytb__ would be saved references
> to the original sys.display and sys.displaytb.

Good idea.

> I hate to contradict Guido, but i'll gently suggest why i
> like "display" better than "displayhook": "display" is a verb,
> and i prefer function names to be verbs rather than nouns
> describing what the functions are (e.g. "read" rather than
> "reader", etc.)

Good idea.  But I hate the "displaytb" name (when I read your message
I had no idea what the "tb" stood for until you explained it).

Hm, perhaps we could do showvalue and showtraceback?
("displaytraceback" is a bit long.)

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)