[Python-ideas] Gettext syntax (was Re: Allow "assigning" to ...)
Barry Warsaw
barry at python.org
Thu Feb 12 16:53:52 CET 2015
On Feb 12, 2015, at 02:40 PM, Ben Finney wrote:
>Gettext has been using the name ‘_’ since 1995, which was in Python's
>infancy. The name ‘_’ is pretty obvious, I'm sure it was in use before
>Python came along.
Exactly. All this was designed for compatibility with GNU gettext conventions
such as in i18n'd C programs. It was especially useful to interoperate with
source text extraction tools. We were aware of the collision with the
interactive interpreter convenience but that wasn't deemed enough to buck
established convention. Using _ to imply "ignore this value" came along
afterward.
Cheers,
-Barry
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 819 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/attachments/20150212/087dc257/attachment.sig>
More information about the Python-ideas
mailing list