[Python-Dev] Set the namespace free! (original) (raw)

Georg Brandl g.brandl at gmx.net
Thu Jul 22 17:54:58 CEST 2010

Am 22.07.2010 15:04, schrieb Bartosz Tarnowski:

Hello, guys. Python has more and more reserved words over time. It becomes quite annoying, since you can not use variables and attributes of such names. Suppose I want to make an XML parser that reads a document and returns an object with attributes corresponding to XML element attributes: > elem = parsexml("") > print elem.param boo What should I do then, when the attribute is a reserver word? I could use trailing underscore, but this is quite ugly and introduces ambiguity. > elem = parsexml("") > print elem.for #????? > elem = parsexml("") > print elem.for #?????_ My proposal: let's make a syntax change. Let all reserved words be preceded with some symbol, i.e. "!" (exclamation mark). This goes also for standard library global identifiers. !for boo in foo: !if boo is !None: !print(hoo) !else: !return !sorted(woo)

You raise a good point. However, I'd rather explicitly signify names instead of keywords:

for booinboo in booinfoo: if booisboo is booisNone: print($hoo) else: return sorted($woo)

That also has the advantage of introducing a measure of much needed compatibility with industry-leading web programming languages.

Georg

-- Thus spake the Lord: Thou shalt indent with four spaces. No more, no less. Four shall be the number of spaces thou shalt indent, and the number of thy indenting shall be four. Eight shalt thou not indent, nor either indent thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to four. Tabs are right out.

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list