[Python-ideas] Change repr(Ellipsis) to '...'

dag.odenhall at gmail.com dag.odenhall at gmail.com
Sun Aug 7 01:21:59 CEST 2011


Now that it is valid in any expressions, I'd argue the repr should
reflect the literal syntax. There are however some reasons this might
not be desirable: ellipsis is used to represent recursive objects, and
by reprlib when summarizing long reprs. Thus there would be ambiguity.
A counter-argument may be that a repr isn't intended to be completely
unambiguous, reversible or parseable - in deed many objects mimic the
literal syntax of builtin types even though they add special behavior.
I was going to give os.environ as an example here, and then learned
this is no longer the case in Python 3, so maybe it is after all seen
as undesirable. :)

Anyway: discuss!



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