[Python-Dev] PEP 457: Syntax For Positional-Only Parameters

[Anders J. Munch]

Larry Hastings wrote:
> I look forward to an alternate suggestion.  This is the least-bad
> thing I could come up with.

How about a naming convention instead, where using a leading
underscore in a parameter name is a hint that it is positional-only.

For example, the docstring of sorted:
    sorted(iterable, key=None, reverse=False) --> new sorted list
would become:
    sorted(_iterable, key=None, reverse=False) --> new sorted list

It seems more intuitive than the slash, and requires no change to the
toolchain.

Although, it may collide slightly with code that uses a leading
underscore to indicate "implementation detail" for a parameter with a
default value, but a quick scan of the std. lib. suggests that that's
very rare.

regards, Anders


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/attachments/20131009/bf61319b/attachment.html>