Any other Python flaws?

[Tiago Henriques]

bokr at accessone.com (Bengt Richter) wrote in message news:<3b2a94a6.591842855 at wa.news.verio.net>...
> On 15 Jun 2001 18:11:48 +1200, Paul Foley <see at below> wrote:
> 
> >On Fri, 15 Jun 2001 04:01:49 GMT, Bengt Richter wrote:
> >
> >> One benefit would be that Python could have its _own_ standard
> >> hierarchical file-and-such-entities-as-my-be-desired name space
> >> independent of platform, or at least more independent.
> >

> Having an abstract tree would also make possible laying out python
> package and module relations in terms of their standardized abstract
> tree locations without worrying about where they were actually
> installed on disks or networks, or indeed whether they were hooked-in
> python objects playing proxy roles.
> 

While we're on the subject of namespaces, one thing that I've felt from the beginning
was missing from Python is a way to navigate the name space tree like a file system.

For example, instead of typing:
	dir(os.path)
	dir(os)

one could type:
	cd(os.path)
	dir()
	cd(..)
	dir()
	pwd()
	'os'

or something similar. This could also be coupled with a context dependant help function.

This is not so much a wart as a missing feature, but I feel it would make python even
more enjoyable for newbies.

Another annoying missing feature is the absence of command line editing in the
python shell. Perhaps now that the license has been made gnu-compatible it will
be possible to ship python pre-compiled with the readline library, instead of 
having to compile python yourself. I have compiled python with readline support
myself, and it's pretty easy, but for the average user who is afraid of makefiless
and compilations, it would be extra-nice if python were a bit more user-friendly
out-of-the-box.

-- Tiago