RFC: Viper: yet another python implementation
John Max Skaller
skaller at maxtal.com.au
Sun Aug 15 11:28:15 EDT 1999
On Tue, 10 Aug 99 23:15:18 GMT, philh at vision25.demon.co.uk (Phil Hunt) wrote:
>In article <37b075ae.2367293988 at news.triode.net.au>
> skaller at maxtal.com.au "John (Max" writes:
>> This is a request for comments on Viper,
>> Extensions:
>> 6) what do you want?
>
>C-style comments
With what syntax, and why?
1. Syntax:
The C syntax doesn't support nesting; OTOH the PL/1 ML style
(* ... *) syntax does.
New lexicology for strings and comments is easy
enough to add, since it only affects the lexer. However, it is
also easy to create an unreadable mess if _too many_
new lexical forms are introduced.
2. Why?
One obvious reason: annotating things like function parameters
with C++/Python style comments can expand source code too much:
def f( # a function
a, # arg1
b # arg2
):
might be written
def f /* a function */ ( a /* arg1 */, b /* arg2 */ ):
on one line with C style comments.
>sorted dictionary loops, eg:
>for k, v in dict.sortedValues():
>where this is sorted by keys.
Something to support dictionary iteration is
needed. My thought was:
for k in dict: value = dict[k] ...
which is equivalent to
keys = dict.keys()
keys.sort()
for k in keys: value = dict[k]
Unfortunately, you can't write
for k in dict.keys().sort():
because the keys() refers directly to the dictionary
keys, and sort() sorts in place. Both these methods
are the way they are for efficiency. Perhaps a new
method would be a good solution (for Python 1.6 too):
for k in dict.sorted_keys(): ...
however, there is a related idea here, that a dictionary
with all values None is isomorphic to a set. Thus
k in dict
would mean
k in set
which is natural notation, and
k in dict
is an extension to dictionaries in which the
set is the set of keys.
John Max Skaller ph:61-2-96600850
mailto:skaller at maxtal.com.au 10/1 Toxteth Rd
http://www.maxtal.com.au/~skaller Glebe 2037 NSW AUSTRALIA
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