[Python-Dev] OT: style convention: self vs. _ in new Norvig's book

[Peter Norvig]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> I hear that in the Lisp world, when someone complains about the
> parentheses, the standard response is "once you're used to it, the
> parentheses disappear".  So it is for Python's 'self'.  :-)

That may be a good analogy, and as I said, I'm willing to try.  But I
still think one character is easier to ignore than four, and that there
is no compelling argument for 'self' over '_', while there is a positive
reason for parens (ease of automated parsing tools). 

> What's a booth bimbo? :-)

"It's not a sexist phenomenon as such, applying equally to the pretty
young men and women who work as scenery at various booths. Universally,
these people have no clue about the products they represent; instead
they hand out buttons and propaganda, smile nicely, and act as props for
the larger show that goes on around them."
-- http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-159.html#lnk6

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