[Python-ideas] Is there a good reason to use * for multiplication?

[Ram Rachum]

On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 10:40 PM, Blake Hyde <syrion at gmail.com> wrote:

> Is anything gained from this addition?


To give a practical answer, I could say that for newbies it's one small
confusion that could removed from the language. You and I have been
programming for a long time so we take it for granted that * means
multiplication, but for any other person that's just another
weird idiosyncrasy that further alienates programming.

Also, I think that using * for multiplication is ugly.



>
> On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 4:37 PM, Ram Rachum <ram.rachum at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 10:34 PM, Mike Graham <mikegraham at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 4:27 PM, Ram Rachum <ram.rachum at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> > Hi everybody,
> >> >
> >> > Today a funny thought occurred to me. Ever since I've learned to
> program
> >> > when I was a child, I've taken for granted that when programming, the
> >> > sign
> >> > used for multiplication is *. But now that I think about it, why? Now
> >> > that
> >> > we have Unicode, why not use · ?
> >> >
> >> > Do you think that we can make Python support · in addition to *?
> >> >
> >> > I can think of a couple of problems, but none of them seem like
> >> > deal-breakers:
> >> >
> >> >  - Backward compatibility: Python already uses *, but I don't see a
> >> > backward
> >> > compatibility problem with supporting · additionally. Let people use
> >> > whichever they want, like spaces and tabs.
> >> >  - Input methods: I personally use an IDE that could be easily set to
> >> > automatically convert * to · where appropriate and to allow manual
> input
> >> > of
> >> > ·. People on Linux can type Alt-. . Anyone else can set up a script
> >> > that'll
> >> > let them type · using whichever keyboard combination they want. I
> admit
> >> > this
> >> > is pretty annoying, but since you can always use * if you want to, I
> >> > figure
> >> > that anyone who cares enough about using · instead of * (I bet that
> >> > people
> >> > in scientific computing would like that) would be willing to take the
> >> > time
> >> > to set it up.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > What do you think?
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Ram
> >>
> >> Python should not expect characters that are hard for most people to
> >> type.
> >
> >
> > No one will be forced to type it. If you can't type it, use *.
> >
> >
> >>
> >> Python should not expect characters that are still hard to
> >> display on many common platforms.
> >
> >
> > We allow people to have unicode variable names, if they wish, don't we?
> So
> > why not allow them to use unicode operator, if they wish, as a completely
> > optional thing?
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> I think you'll find strong opposition to adding any non-ASCII
> >> characters or characters that don't occur on almost all keyboards as
> >> part of the language.
> >>
> >> Mike
> >
> >
> >
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> >
>
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