Py3K idea: why not drop the colon?

[Ron Adam]

Michael Hobbs wrote:
> Ron Adam wrote:
>> LOL,  of course it would.  I would expect that too after a suitable amount of 
>> 'brain washing', oops, I mean training and conditioning. ;-)
>>   
> Trust me, my brain is quite filthy and doesn't wash easily. I do 
> appreciate aesthetics, which is why still stay with Python, even after 
> programming in Ruby for several months. I've used Java/C/C++ for years, 
> yet I make no complaint about the lack of static typing in Python. Even 
> so, I'd like to think that I know a good thing when I see it.

I find if I approach things on a learning basis and always presume there are 
things I still don't know.  I then tend to get much more help and support than 
if I approach things on a 'I'm right/your wrong' basis.  Also, if I do turn out 
to have a point a view that is not exactly right, it is then much easier for me 
to take a new position or even the reverse position and move on.

> Not to repeat myself from an earlier post, but any pretense that 
> Python's primary objective is readability went out the window with the 
> invention of such constructs as "__del__", "__repr__", and 
> "super(MyClass, self).__init__()". There are obviously other goals to 
> the language's development that inspired these constructs and override 
> the priority of readability.

No one said (that I know of) that readability is *the primary objective*.  But 
it is a very important guideline.

>> Here's an alternative test.  Write a program to remove all the end of line 
>> colons from pythons library and then write another separate program to put them 
>> back in.  Will it miss any?  will it pass the python test suite?
>>   
> I just may take you up on that. ;-) Not for a few days, though. Not 
> enough time right now.
> 
> - Mike

I believe you will find that exercise much more difficult than it seems, but I 
may be wrong.  Good luck if you try it, and let me know how it goes.

Ron