Default paranmeter for packed values

[Xavier Ho]

G'day Pythoneers,

I ran into a strange problem today: why does Python not allow default
paranmeters for packed arguments in a function def?

>>> def test(a = 1, b = (2, 3)):
...     print a, b
...
>>> test()
1 (2, 3)

>>> def t(a, *b = (3, 4)):
  File "<input>", line 1
    def t(a, *b = (3, 4)):
                ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

What was the rationale behind this design?

Cheers,

Ching-Yun Xavier Ho, Technical Artist

Contact Information
Mobile: (+61) 04 3335 4748
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Email: contact at xavierho.com
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