[Python-ideas] allow `lambda' to be spelled λ

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 07:40:42AM -0700, Rustom Mody wrote:

> My suggested solution involved this:
> Currently the lexer — basically an automaton — reveals which state its in 
> when it throws error involving "identifier"
> Suggested change: 
> 
> if in_ident_state:
>   if current_char is allowable as ident_char:
>      continue as before
>   elif current_char is ASCII:
>      Usual error
>   else:
>      throw error eliding the "in_ident state"
> else:
>   as is...

I'm sorry, you've lost me. Is this pseudo-code (1) of the current 
CPython lexer, (2) what you imagine the current CPython lexer does, or 
(3) what you think it should do? Because you call it a "change", but 
you're only showing one state, so it's not clear if its the beginning or 
ending state.

Basically I guess what I'm saying is that if you are suggesting a 
concrete change to the lexer, you should be more precise about what 
needs to actually change.


> BTW after last post I tried some things and found other unsatisfactory (to 
> me) behavior in this area; to wit:
> 
>  >>> x = 0o19
>   File "<stdin>", line 1
>     x = 0o19
>            ^
> SyntaxError: invalid syntax
> 
> Of course the 9 cannot come in an octal constant but "Syntax Error"??
> Seems a little over general
> 
> My preferred fix:
> make a LexicalError sub exception to SyntaxError

What's the difference between a LexicalError and a SyntaxError?

Under what circumstances is it important to distinguish between them?

It would be nice to have a more descriptive error message, but why 
should I care whether the invalid syntax "0o19" is caught by a lexer or 
a parser or the byte-code generator or the peephole optimizer or 
something else? Really all I need to care about is:

- it is invalid syntax;
- why it is invalid syntax (9 is not a legal octal digit);
- and preferably, that it is caught at compile-time rather than run-time.


-- 
Steve