[Python-Dev] converting the stdlib to str.format
Steve Holden
steve at holdenweb.com
Fri Jun 6 13:14:07 CEST 2008
Nick Coghlan wrote:
> Greg Ewing wrote:
>> Nick Coghlan wrote:
>>
>>> - remove support for passing a single value to a format string
>>> without wrapping it in an iterable first
>>
>> But won't that clobber a large number of the simple
>> use cases that you want to keep %-formatting for?
>
> Note the part of the proposal that allows *any* iterable on the right
> hand side rather than the current insistence on a tuple. So the
> single-value use cases can be boxed easily with a list.
>
> To my mind salvaging %-formatting requires removing the ambiguity over
> whether or not the right hand side will be iterated over.
>
But then this breaks code where iterables are intended to be output
using a single %s format specifier, for example. I don't see why this
would be regarded as helpful. To avoid breakage I'd rather keep the
%-formatting ability as it is, and label it a legacy feature, rather
than "salvaging" it. It's going to be too tricky to convert using 2to3
otherwise.
regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/
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