Concrete Proposal: while ... and while ...

[Barry A. Warsaw]

>>>>> "PP" == Paul Prescod <paul at prescod.net> writes:

    PP> Python keywords can't be used as variable names. Today, "do"
    PP> could be a variable name in some obscure piece of
    PP> code. Personally I think that the tiny bit of breakage would
    PP> be worth it but strictly speaking it would be a (mildly)
    PP> backwards-incompatible change.

    PP> do=15

    PP> If we loosened the rule against using keywords, or made an
    PP> exception for "do" then it could be implemented in a
    PP> backwards-compatible manner by looking for the colon. I find I
    PP> often want to use class as a variable name...

JPython has loosened the rules somewhat:

JPython 1.1beta1 on java1.2.1
Copyright © 1997-1999 Corporation for National Research Initiatives
>>> class C: pass
... 
>>> C.for = 7

but this wouldn't help if the keyword were used as a non-attribute:

>>> for = 7
Traceback (innermost last):
  (no code object) at line 0
  File "<console>", line 1
	for = 7
	    ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

So if CPython adopted the same loosening, it might alleviate the
problem in many, but not all, circumstances.

-Barry