[Python-ideas] Allow additional separator character in variables

[Antoine Rozo]

What will the hyphen bring to what is already allowed with underscore?
It is not possible to break compatibility with '-' character.

2017-11-19 3:01 GMT+01:00 Mikhail V <mikhailwas at gmail.com>:

> Python allows underscore character as a separator in variables.
> This is better than nothing, still it does not make the look much better.
>
> **Proposal**: allow additional separator, namely hyphen character.
>
> **Benefits**: this should provide significant readability improvement.
> Compared to most syntax change proposals that I remember till now,
> this seems to have really tangible benefits. So all in all I see it as
> a significant
> language improvement.
> Besides its direct benefit as a good looking separator, it also gives
> an opprtunity
> to reduce "camelCase" or similar ugly inclusions in code.
>
> So one can easily compose human-readable variable names e.g.:
> my-variable
> figure-shape---width
> etc.
>
> **Problem**: currently hyphen character is used as a minus operator!
> The problem is as old as the history of most programming languages,
> and inherited from initial poorness of character sets.
> Therefore I don't see a single optimal solution to this.
>
> Possible solutions:
>
> Solution 1:
> Use another similar looking character from unicode,
> for example: U+02D7  (modifier letter minus sign).
> At the same time IMO it is needed to allow the minus character
> for the minus operator, namely U+2212 Minus sign. This will
> allow proper typography of source code.
> Main benefit of such approach: no breakage of current code base,
> since new chars are additional to existing ones.
>
> Solution 2: (radical)
> Disallow hyphen as minus operator, and use only U+2212 Minus sign.
> I.e. "a-b" would be a variable and "a − b" a minus operation.
> Advantage: opportunity to correct the improper character usage once and
> for all.
> Disadvantage: breakage of current code base + force UTF-8 storage use
> (consider
> e.g. editors without unicode support).
> Thus most probably such solution will cause howl reaching to the sky among
> users, despite many modern editors allow unicode and custom operator
> styling,
> for example to distinguish dash from hyphen in a monospaced editor.
>
> So is my proposal, and as usual urging for constructive conversation.
> (i.e. proposing to write own language/translator is not constructive
> conversation)
>
>
> Cheers,
> Mikhail
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-- 
Antoine Rozo
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