[Python-ideas] keywording prohibited

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, 3 May 2009 07:35:29 am Jan Claeys wrote:
> Op donderdag 23-04-2009 om 05:53 uur [tijdzone -0700], schreef Aahz:
> > How do non-keyword builtins bite?
>
> You can accidentally "re-define" or mask them (if you don't use a
> tool that warns for that).

Cross out "accidentally", and the ability to shadow built-ins is a 
feature, not a bug.

Anything that you do accidentally is a problem. You can accidentally 
shadow a module, or one of your own functions or names. And while 
Python has a rich set of built-ins, it isn't so many that learning them 
is a burden. I would expect that the average newbie would accidentally 
shadow a built-in once or twice, then never do it again.

(Especially if they hang around comp.lang.python and get yelled at every 
time they do it.)


-- 
Steven D'Aprano