[Python-3000] Pre-PEP: Simple input built-in in Python 3000 (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Sat Dec 23 16:46:18 CET 2006

On 12/23/06, Fredrik Lundh <fredrik at pythonware.com> wrote:

Guido van Rossum wrote:

> But they typically aren't used to entering EOF either; EOF is not > exactly a typical input in an interactive program, and having to enter > it typically means you're talking to a Unix utility that's not really > designed for interactive use. the progression I had in mind was 1. literals, simple operations, printing the result 2. reading input from the console, simple operations, printing the result 3. reading input from a file, simple operations, printing the result the jump between 2 and 3 is a bit too large in today's Python. another way to address that would be to add standard input and output objects (which delegates to sys.stdin/stdout) to the builtin name- space; after all: input.readline() is pretty self-documenting, even if you don't really understand dotted notation just yet.

I don't see a strong connection between reading from interactive input and reading from a file. Reading from input interactively is more similar to accepting user input from a GUI than reading data from a file. One of the first interactive sessions in a beginner's program is the guess-a-number game ("Is it larger than 10?" etc.). This just doesn't have an analogy with reading files.

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

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