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

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Thu Dec 29 07:27:35 CET 2005

On 12/27/05, Fredrik Lundh <fredrik at pythonware.com> wrote:

but now we're back to today's situation:

>>> quit 'Use Ctrl-Z plus Return to exit.' which violates the basic "if you know what I mean, why the /!"&/&!//%ยค don't you do what I say" usability rule.

What nonsense. Every Python programmer knows that the right way to exit Python is to enter a platform EOF. The quit and exit variables are compromises for non-programmers who have accidentally entered Python and who don't know how to get out of it (this is usually the same category of people who don't know how or don't dare to kill a program using heavy artillery).

Rather than improving upon the quit/exit functionality a la /F's patch I'd get rid of the compromise.

Now, for Py3K we could try to come up with a more intelligent interactive mode. Probably not implemented in C. Perhaps using ideas from ipython (which I've personally never used). We might provide a quit or exit command using a more sophisticated mechanism. But there are always costs (e.g. the violation of the primciple that typing a name shows its repr()).

In the mean time I'm a strong believer in "it ain't broke so don't fix it" here.

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

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