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

[Nick Coghlan]

On Sun, Aug 7, 2011 at 2:33 PM, Mike Graham <mikegraham at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 7:21 PM, dag.odenhall at gmail.com
> <dag.odenhall at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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!
>
> I think the current state is a lot more helpful in debugging, and that
> making repr(...) be "..." would result in occasional confusion but no
> positive effects.

Interesting idea, but far too confusing in the interactive interpreter
and in doctests:

- '...' is also the default prompt for continuation lines (e.g. when
defining a function)
- '...' is used to mark 'match anything' sections in doctests

The situation might have been different if the syntax had always been
allowed everywhere, but there's no compelling reason to change it now.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia