[Python-Dev] Replacement for print in Python 3.0

[Tim Peters]

[Paul F. Dubois]
> Remove the print statement....I laughed until my sides hurt. Hello? Try
> dating girls and talking to normal people, geek boys.

I tried talking to both, and in this case all said "What's a 'print
statement'?  You mean like a bank statement -- or what?" ;-)

> We scientists still use these for debugging. We never 'move on' very far
> from the tutorial. The salient feature about print statements is that
> they live to be put in and commented out 10 minutes later, without some
> import being required or other enabling object being around.

In fairness, Guido suggested adding builtin functions as replacements,
so in his view you still wouldn't need to import anything.

OTOH, I'd keep print, but (a) remove the inscrutable softspace
gimmick, so that a comma always meant "one space"; and, (b) add even
more special sytnax, so there was also an easy way to separate print
items without forcing a space between them in the output.

> Easy things should be easy. Hard things should be possible. I don't
> believe the person who said the trailing comma case mixed up anybody,
> not for more than 10 seconds anyway.

Indeed, you can't even start to spell "practicality beats purity"
without first duplicating the first two letters of "print" <wink>.

> OK, now that I've offended everyone, I'll go back into retirement. But I
> *am* laughing at you.

Providing entertainment for retirees is one of the PSF's missions.  I
wonder whether we could get AARP to kick back $10 to the PSF for each
of their members?  For 350 million dollars a year, I'll be happy to
maintain a parallel P3K with a "print" statement until I die.