[Python-ideas] Short form for keyword arguments and dicts

[Andrew McNabb]

On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 02:03:58PM -0400, Terry Reedy wrote:
> >>>>print('{spam} and {eggs}'.format(locals()))
> 
> That should be
> print('{spam} and {eggs}'.format(**locals()))

Yes, you're right.

> Why do you see an intended usage as an 'awful workaround'?

Mainly because I think it's magical and ugly and reduces readability.
It's subjective, but I always use the also-ugly but less magical:

> print('{spam} and {eggs}'.format(spam=spam, eggs=eggs))


> >>>>print('{spam} and {eggs}'.format(=spam, =eggs))
> 
> It looks pretty hideous to me ;-).

I agree. :)

> And it still has repetition ;-).

True, though it can be helpful to look at the function call and actually
see what arguments are being passed in.

Anyway, I do have plenty of code that suffers from function calls with
f(x=x,y=y,z=z).  Most of it is of the form that Greg Ewing pointed out,
where one function passes arguments along to another function.  I'm not
sure if this is the right solution, and I agree that it's ugly, but
there are use cases where it might help.  I'm still probably -0 on it.

--
Andrew McNabb
http://www.mcnabbs.org/andrew/
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