[Python-ideas] PEP 505: None-aware operators

[Giampaolo Rodola']

On Sun, Jul 22, 2018 at 2:10 PM Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Jul 22, 2018 at 12:13:04PM +0200, Giampaolo Rodola' wrote:
> > On Sun, Jul 22, 2018 at 3:55 AM Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
> [...]
> > > I don't think that "+" is harder to read than
> > > "standard_mathematics_operators_numeric_addition"
> >
> >
> > Please let's drop the argument that + - * / = and ? are the same.
> [...]
> But if we insist that every symbol we use is instantly recognisable and
> intuitively obvious to every programmer, we're putting the bar for
> acceptance impossibly high.

I personally don't find "a ?? b" too bad (let's say I'm -0 about it)
but idioms such as "a?.b", "a ??= b" and "a?[3] ?? 4" look too
Perl-ish to me, non pythonic and overall not explicit, no matter what
the chosen symbol is gonna be. It looks like they want to do too much
for the sole reason of allowing people to write more compact code and
save a few lines. Compact code is not necessarily a good thing,
especially when it comes at the expense of readability and
explicitness, as I think is this case.

> All the obvious operators are already in use. Anything we add now is
> going to be a little bit niche, a little bit unusual.

That's basically my point. And I know I'll sound very conservative
here but to me that is a valid enough reason to not take action or be
extremely careful at the very least. Not to state the obvious but it's
not that we *have to* use the remaining unused symbols just because
they're there.

-- 
Giampaolo - http://grodola.blogspot.com