[Python-Dev] Half-baked proposal: * (and **?) in assignments

[Brett Cannon]

[Delaney, Timothy]

> I think the addition of this would lead to a more functional style of
> programming. This may be a plus for some people, and a minus for others.
>

MINUS!

And yes, I have done my fair share of Scheme and Lisp programming so this
is not an ignorant statement.  Python is not a functional language, nor do
I personally want to see it go in that direction.  Guido has said before
that he regrets including ``lambda``, ``map`` and the other built-in
methods that come from the functional world (read his "Python Regrets"
presentation from OSCON 2002).

But I am sure there are people out there who disagree with my view.  =)
So I am still going to hold as my main argument that it does not promote
concise code and I want to keep the LHS of the assignment simple.  But
then again that might be a bias coming from a right-handed person.  =)

-Brett