[Python-Dev] New syntax for 'dynamic' attribute access (original) (raw)

Paul Moore p.f.moore at gmail.com
Tue Feb 13 11:44:21 CET 2007

On 13/02/07, Anthony Baxter <anthony at interlink.com.au> wrote:

The killer problem with backticks (to pick the syntax that currently causes this problem the most) is with webpages and with printed books with code. Sure, everyone can pick a font for coding that they can read, but that's not the only way you read code. This is my issue with the foo.(bar) syntax. The period is far far too small and easy to miss.

That's a good point, but I've been reading this thread in gmail (proportional font) and quite often using the wrong glasses (:-)) and I've found that the dot has never been that unreadable. Even where it isn't very visible, it introduces an extra bit of space, which makes me look again, and see what's going on.

In practice, I find that distinguishing {}, [] and () is harder...

Just a small data point. Paul.

PS On the overall change, I'm +1, I don't have much opinion on exact syntax. And I'd second the comments that the way the PEP has been handled by Ben has been great - it's been very easy to follow what could have been a really messy thread.

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