[Python-Dev] transitioning from % to {} formatting

James Y Knight foom at fuhm.net
Sat Oct 3 08:36:38 CEST 2009


On Oct 2, 2009, at 2:56 PM, Raymond Hettinger wrote:
> Do the users get any say in this?
> I imagine that some people are heavily invested in %-formatting.
>
> Because there has been limited uptake on {}-formatting (afaict),
> we still have limited experience with knowing that it is actually
> better, less error-prone, easier to learn/rember, etc.   Outside
> a handful of people on this list, I have yet to see anyone adopt
> it as the preferred syntax.

Well, I actually think it was a pretty bad idea to introduce {}  
formatting, because %-formatting is well-known in many other  
languages, and $-formatting is used by basically all the rest. So the  
introduction of {}-formatting has always seemed silly to me, and I  
wish it had not happened.

HOWEVER, much worse than having a new, different, and strange  
formatting convention is having *multiple* formatting conventions  
arbitrarily used in different places within the language, with no  
rhyme or reason.

So, given that brace-formatting was added, and that it's been declared  
the way forward, I'd *greatly* prefer it taking over everywhere in  
python, instead of having to use a mixture.

James


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