python gripes survey

[Dave Brueck]

On Saturday 23 August 2003 09:39 am, Ryan Lowe wrote:
> python is a big improvement on most languages that came before it, but no
> language is perfect. id like to make a list of some of the aspects people
> find most annoying, regardless of their feasibility of implementation. for
> instance, i discussed putting if clauses in for loops, and i noticed
> another thread about allowing {} and [] to be added and subtracted. if its
> something from another language (especially an obscure one), please explain
> how it works in case people like myself dont know the language.

Well, will your list include anti-gripes, as in things a few people gripe 
about but that many others consider to be positive features? Here's a short 
list of my anti-gripes - features that I like but some people complain about; 
features that, if removed or changed too much, would make me like Python 
less:

- no assignment in if/while
- whitespace significant to both programmer and the language
- {} + {} not allowed ;-)
- private variables are a language-encouraged convention instead of an attempt 
to babysit the programmer
- no macros
- no end-block tag required
- list comprehensions
- a "self" parameter is passed to all class methods, and by convention we all 
call it "self"
- tendency to prefer keywords over special characters
- thread-safe operations on fundamental objects (e.g. two threads doing 
somedict['foo'] = x at the same time won't cause Python to crash or corrupot 
somdict)
- list.sort() doesn't return the sorted list

There are more, but this list is just off the top of my head. :)
-Dave