[Python-Dev] Re: PEP 326 now online (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Tue Jan 6 13:07:57 EST 2004

I proposed cmp.lo and cmp.hi as a trial balloon for the idea of using specific public function attributes (as opposed to generic implementation attributes) as a 'low-cost' alternative to builtin names for something that is useful but not so central as None, True, and False. I had no thought then of non-native-English users or much attachment to the specifics except for the shortness. Capitalizing the constants' names would follow precedence. Using Min and Max reuses existing knowledge, so this would be OK by me.

Hm. cmp is a builtin function. That seems an exceedingly odd place to stick arbitrary constants -- much more so than type objects (like Martin's recently proposed unicode property for controlling error handling).

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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