Guido's intuition (was Re: typetesting, adaptation, typeclasses, ...)

[Aahz Maruch]

In article <mailman.1012618084.26466.python-list at python.org>,
Jason Orendorff <jason at jorendorff.com> wrote:
>Aahz wrote:
>> Jason Orendorff wrote:
>>> Alex Martelli wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Refusing to guess in presence of ambiguity is one of Python's
>>>> tenets, though.
>>>
>>> It's the language that doesn't guess.  The language designer is
>>> notorious for picking one thing, seemingly arbitrarily, from a number
>>> of reasonable alternatives.
>>
>> Mind expanding that?  (I could guess, but I don't want to flame you
>> until I know for sure what you're saying. ;-)
>
>My point was that when the BDFL has to choose between a number of
>reasonable alternatives, he often picks one without seriously trying to
>justify the choice.  (Hence "BDFL pronouncements" in many PEPs: 201,
>202, 223, 255...)  In PEP 255:  "No argument on either side is totally
>convincing, so I have consulted my language designer's intuition."

Yes.  And nine times out of ten, if you think you disagree with Guido's
intuition, you'll change your mind later.  As Alex (I think it was Alex)
pointed out a few months ago, Guido's ability to do good design work
vastly outstrips his ability to *explain* his thought processes.

Therefore, as long as you emphasize "*seemingly* arbitrary", you won't
get flamed by me.
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