[Python-Dev] PEP 215 redux: toward a simplified consensus? (original) (raw)

Barry A. Warsaw barry@zope.com
Mon, 25 Feb 2002 14:28:13 -0500

"MAL" == M <mal@lemburg.com> writes:

MAL> Whatever you do, just please don't mix the old and new 
MAL> semantics...

MAL>    'Joe has $ %(a)5.2f in his pocket.' % locals()

MAL> is perfectly valid now and should continue to be valid.

I agree completely; it ought to be one or the other. In the code I emailed, you actually had to do a conversion step from $-strings to %-strings to use the build-in string-mod operator. In practice, if $-strings were to be added to the language, I suspect some new prefix would have to designate a new type of string object, e.g. $'' strings. Or perhaps a different binary operator could be used.

-Barry