[Python-ideas] Making stars optional? (was: Making colons optional?)

[Greg Ewing]

Bruce Leban wrote:

> 
>     x = 3a + 4(b-c)
> 
> Why should we require the stars when it's unambiguous what the first 
> statement means?

Indeed. Quite obviously the programmer meant to call
the number 4 with argument b - c there. :-)

I believe that one of HP's programmable calculator/
computer thingies had a language that let you write
implied multiplications like that, but it only had
single-letter variable names and no function calls,
so there wasn't so much of a problem. In the next
model you were allowed multi-char variable names,
so they had to drop that feature.

BTW, I think in Icon you can actually call numbers,
although I forget what weird-assed thing it means
just at the moment.

-- 
Greg