[Python-Dev] Re: Alternative ImplementationforPEP292:SimpleString Substitutions (original) (raw)

Brett C. bac at OCF.Berkeley.EDU
Sat Sep 11 07:22:12 CEST 2004

Raymond Hettinger wrote:

* For someone who understands exactly what they are doing, perhaps $ma

is the intended placeholder -- why force them to uses braces: ${ma}ñana. It also makes it more difficult to document. IOW, right now the PEP and the documentation say that the first non-identifier character terminates the placeholder. How would you word the rules with your change? """Placeholders must be a valid Python identifier (containing only ASCII alphanumeric characters and an underscore). If an unbraced identifier ends with a non-ASCII alphanumeric character, such as the latin letter n with tilde in $mañana, then a ValueError is raised for the specious identifier.

I don't think any of this is needed. If a non-programmer is being told to use string substitution chances are someone is either going to explain it to them or there will be another set of docs to explain things in a simple way. I suspect stating exactly what a valid Python identifier contains as you did in parentheses above will be enough.

-Brett

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