[Python-Dev] a quit that actually quits (original) (raw)

Stephen J. Turnbull stephen at xemacs.org
Thu Dec 29 05:35:07 CET 2005

"Martin" == Martin v Löwis <martin at v.loewis.de> writes:

Martin> That would assume that the user knows that exit is a
Martin> function: apparently, people expect it to be a statement
Martin> (like print),

Oh, the irony of that analogy!

Martin> or they are entirely unaware of the distinctions between
Martin> statements, expressions, and functions.

Then there's little point to giving them access to the interpreter!

Of course, Martin also mentioned "students". Python is not the only language in the world; we all know that, even if most of us much prefer programming in Python to any other environment. If you're teaching, why not use this as an opportunity to deliver a brief lecture on why Python does things differently, and why one should understand a formal language in its own terms, not in terms of what you (the user/programmer) want it to be for momentary convenience?

My feeling is that the current behavior of "exit" and "quit" is not "you didn't say please" but "excuse me, I don't speak BASIC; would you say that in Python or signal that the conversation is over (ie, EOF)?"

For me, that's part of the Zen of Python. Probably I'm just missing something given the amount of support this idea is getting, from really respectable sources, too, but it just seems wrong to change this. What's wrong with having a distinctive personality?

I suppose the current value of those variables sounds a bit rude. Why not fix the discourtesy, rather than what's not broken (IMHO)?

exit = """
The Python interpreter simply interprets a Python program. It provides no special interactive commands. The line editor is a thin front-end to the standard input stream. To exit your program, use one of the functions or exceptions provided for this purpose, or simply end the file (interactively this is signaled by Ctrl-D).

This public service message brought to you by the global variable 'exit'."""

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