On Friday 07 January 2005 01:24 pm, Paul Rubin wrote: > Nick Coghlan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Add in the fact that there are many, many Python programmers with > > non-CS backgrounds, and the term 'lambda' sticks out like a sore thumb > > from amongst Python's other English-based keywords. > > Richard Feynman told a story about being on a review committee for > some grade-school science textbooks. One of these book said something > about "counting numbers" and it took him a while to figure out that > this was a new term for what he'd been used to calling "integers".
I think we should not try too hard to make everything "English" like. Its a crappy language anyway (though its the only one I speak good). Matt Neuberg, in _AppleScript: The Definitive Guide_, refers to "the English-likeness monster". His example is that instead of x = 4 you have to say copy 4 to x I think every reader of this list would prefer to look at the former. The point is that once we learn new symbolics of expression, they are as simple to decipher as plain old English if we format properly and gIvEnThAtwEiNcLuDEsOmEhElPfUlfORmaTtInGInOuRcOdEFroMtImEtOtiME. So I think that being fearful of new additions to the language (read "more ability for expression") is mainly fear of abuse by poor programmers--and that is akin to being afraid of the dark. James -- James Stroud, Ph.D. UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics 611 Charles E. Young Dr. S. MBI 205, UCLA 951570 Los Angeles CA 90095-1570 http://www.jamesstroud.com/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
