[Python-ideas] parameter omit

[Josiah Carlson]

Adding python-ideas in as a CC, because I'm a jerk.

"Aaron Brady" <castironpi at comcast.net> wrote:
> On a personal note, Josiah, you strike first.  "Pestering" is pejorative.
> My statements do not merit it.  Keep it off the newsgroup.  You insult me
> without grounds; and in fact -after- my abilities are demonstrated.  Quote
> me instead, as I do, to disagree.
> 
> The discussion reads as follows.  "Better except that it has no support."
> So support it.  Who's to blame: myself, or those with pull?
> 
> I have a good idea by newsgroup standards.  You reveal bias to summarily
> dismiss.  I urge you to reconsider; practice diplomacy here.

Post what you want.  If people aren't offering +1 or -1, it could be for
any number of reasons; from being busy (it is in the middle of the week),
to just not caring enough either way, believing that their opinions and
interests are already being expressed, etc.

But when you post something, then 24 hours and 40 minutes later you ask,
"Also, any follow-up on this?  (I posted at top.)" at the bottom of a 95
line quote of your own last post without cutting out the unimportant
parts, it is pestering, and a very low signal to noise ratio 1:95. Never
mind that you only recently seemed to learn that we don't top post in
Python mailing lists, but you still haven't realized that we trim
unimportant parts of quoted posts.  Had you top posted or failed to trim
either in python-list (or the equivalent comp.lang.python), any number
of people would have told you as much.

But hey, you are being such the good usenet poster, you couldn't have
made a mistake, of course not.  Get over yourself.


With that said, I don't particularly like the addition of syntax for
something that can already be done other ways (TOOWTDI), or the addition
of a new builtin to signal something that I've never heard *anyone* ask
about before.  Really, the only *reasonable* name is 'default', which is
used at least 146 times in the Python standard library (according to my
regular expression of default\s*=), and I'm sure thousands of times in 3rd
party code.  It would necessitate a huge change for a feature that no
one (but you) as asked for so that you can use...

    foo(a, b=default, c=1234)
    foo(a, b=253463, c=default)

rather than...

    foo(a, c=1234)
    foo(a, b=253463)

Personally, I find the latter more consistant (only pass arguments that
you care to change).  If you don't, that's fine.  The burdon of proof
isn't on me, or anyone else in python-ideas to prove to you that your
idea sucks; it's on you to prove to everyone else that your idea
*doesn't* suck.  Good luck on that.


Local jerk,
 - Josiah