General question about Python design goals

[Paul Rubin]

Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org> writes:
> But a programming language (or UI) is not just a collection of syntax
> and and interfaces - it's an implementation. You need to keep in mind
> that "practicality beats purity". 

An awful lot of the time in this newsgroup, "practicality beats
purity" translates as "the programmer can just be a lazy slob".

> If following POLA makes the implementation an order of magnitude
> slower or larger, then you don't follow POLA - at least until you
> can do it without that cost.

If following POLA costs that much, at least in the kinds of examples
we talk about all the time here, something is probably wrong with the
implementation (or the design) to begin with.