[Python-Dev] *Simpler* string substitutions

[Guido van Rossum]

> I hypothesized that, because of self-selection effects, Python's
> user based (particularly on Python-Dev and in Python-only firms) is
> biased against featurities _when compared_ to the general
> population, which (I opine) includes a wider proportion of people
> who don't particularly mind a language having many redundant
> features.  There is obviously nothing that needs to be "reconciled"
> between this hypothesized sample-bias and the observation that
> requests for features come more from the user base than from (who
> else would you expect them to come FROM -- people who've never HEARD
> about Python...?-).  So, you're either joking or subject to a common
> and quite understandable "statistical fallacy".  Never forget
> Bayes's Theorem...!-)

I dunno.  Most feature proposals come from the c.l.py crowd, and
that's also the place where the loudest clamor for a stop to the
featuritis was heard.

And I believe that even those who consider themselves strongly
anti-featuritis still have one or two pet features that they really
need (even self-proclaimed arch-conservative Christian Tismer, who
went so far as to develop his own version of the language because he
couldn't get his pet feature adopted).

> > You yourself pleaded for PEP 246 just an hour
> > ago.  Surely that's a big honking new feature!
> 
> I prefer to think of it as a framework that lets most type-casts,
> type-tests, special purpose type-conversion methods, and the like,
> be avoided WITHOUT adding a zillion little ad-hoc features.  But of
> course you could choose to view it differently:-).

Surely it would be a dramatic change, probably deeper than new-style
classes and generators together.

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