[Python-ideas] Method chaining notation

[spir]

On 02/22/2014 03:42 PM, Masklinn wrote:
> Executing the method always has the same effect on its subject. That it
> may not be used for the same purpose is a different issue and common:
> a[k] = v can be used to add a new (k, v) pair or to update a key to a
> new value (in fact Erlang's new map construct makes the difference and
> provides for an update-only version).

You are right! and this is a weakness of python in my view. But you could as 
well have chosen plain assignment, couldn't you? works the same way:

	n = 1	# symbol creation / definition
	n = 2	# symbol change / redefinition

[Note, as a side-point, that if def / redef signs were different, there would be 
no ambiguity around local vs global scope. The ambiguity lies in fact in that 
the compiler cannot know if one wants to create a local symbol or change a 
global one. As for locally creating a global symbol, this should just not exist 
;-); symbols live in their creation scope.]

d