Dialect, A Python derived environment (and language ?)

[Martijn Faassen]

Tim Peters <tim_one at email.msn.com> wrote:
> [Martijn Faassen]
>> ...
>> It's too close to Python in syntax for this to be an independent
>> development..

> What's so Pythonic about it?  They use double-underscore names for some
> system vrbls, but then C also reserves names of that form (where do you
> think Guido got the idea <wink>?).  The specific names "__init__" and
> "__del__" are probably not coincidence, but they appear to be the only
> overlap.  The only other overt Pythonism I saw was using "and" and "or"
> instead of "&&" and "||".  Python may not have been the first language to
> use "if", "class" and "break" ...

I thought I saw them use { } syntax for dictionaries, and [] for lists, and
so on. That looked quite Pythonic to me. I didn't study it in that much
detail though, so I don't have much right to say anything. :)

[snip]
> I'm afraid Python's lawyers are far too busy suing Perl for borrowing
> Python's object model to hassle these poor folks for borrowing three pieces
> of Python syntax and ignoring all its semantics <ahem>.  It may be more
> interesting to study the manual for choices they made Python *didn't*.

Whoops, I didn't intend to bash on it (that badly).

I just was rather surprised they didn't mention Python anywhere; to me it
looks far more like Python than like Basic, but then I mostly used Basic
in the line-number era (and some QuickBasic).

[snip]
> Take Dialect on its own terms, and it's a very interesting design point:
> the language and its libraries are both much smaller than Python, but with a
> little bit of GUI and a little bit of sockets and little bits of other
> things built in.  I find a lot to like in it, and rather than gripe about
> its overlap with Python, I'll be looking for the best ideas to steal.

This is of course the best idea. :)

Regards,

Martijn

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