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

[Georg Brandl]

Steven D'Aprano schrieb:

> Mathematicians get away with this sort of ambiguity because they are 
> writing for other mathematicians, not for a computer. Because 
> mathematical proofs rely on a sequence of equations, not just a single 
> statement, the ambiguity can be resolved:
> 
> y = a(b+c) - ac  # does this mean a+() or a*() or something else?
> y = ab + ac - ac  # ah, it must have been a*()
> y = ab

No context is needed to know what a(b+c) means.  In maths,
you only have single-character variable names (sub-/superscripts
notwithstanding), so ab always means a*b.  Together with some other
conventions, like that nobody writes a3 instead of 3a, everything is
unambiguous.

Though there *are* programmers who wouldn't notice if Python 3.0 switched
to one-character-only variable names, they are probably a minority and
hopefully dying out :)

Georg


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