[Python-ideas] Documenting Python warts (original) (raw)

Ben Finney ben+python at benfinney.id.au
Wed Jan 2 10:58:07 CET 2013

Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> writes:

FWIW, I prefer the term "traps for the unwary" over "warts", since it's less judgmental and better covers the goal of issues for people which can cause problems with learning the language.

I limit my use of “wart” to traps for the unwary which are acknowledged by most core developers to have been a sub-optimal design decision.

They are things one needs to know about Python, the language, which if the designers had their druthers would not have been such a trap – but now we're stuck with them for backward compatibility or lack of a feasible better design, etc.

In other words, I don't call it a “wart” unless the core developers agree with me that it's a wart :-)

-- \ “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their | `\ home.” —Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital | o_) Equipment Corp., 1977 | Ben Finney

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