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

[Mike Meyer]

On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 4:37 PM, Ethan Furman <ethan at stoneleaf.us> wrote:
> Ram Rachum 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 · ?
>
>
> Because it is too easy to confuse · with .
>
> Because it is not solving a problem.
>
> Because it would still take work, and then easily cause confusion.

Because, unlike *, it's a valid character in identifiers. Which means
allowing it either breaks backwards compatibility or makes for some
very confusing usage conventions.