On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:13:48 -0600, Grant Edwards wrote: > On 2009-01-05, Derek Martin <c...@pizzashack.org> wrote: > >>> I'm sorry, but I really don't see how Python's assignment model could >>> be considered bizarre by anybody who's familiar with more than one or >>> two languages. >> >> And... what if one wasn't? The OP of this thread clearly didn't >> understand... Whereas if you've read the thread, clearly I do. Of >> course, had you read my post, you probably would have understood that >> my comment about the model being bizarre was intended to be viewed from >> the perspective of someone who *had not* seen anything like it before, > > X is bizarre because it is unfamiliar to anybody who has never seen X > before?
Bizarre: "conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual". The bizarre is contingent on what people consider familiar, and naturally if you've never seen X or anything like X before, you will find it unfamiliar and likely bizarre. There's no shame in finding spaghetti alla vongole bizarre if you've never seen noodles or clams before. What is shameful is the refusal to consider that just because it is bizarre to *you* doesn't mean that it is bizarre to anyone else, and that your sense of bizarreness probably reflects more your ignorance of the wide range of edible dishes than anything strange about the food itself. (On the other hand, maggot cheese really is bizarre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu ) By all means, if Derek doesn't like the assignment model used by Python (and Java, Ruby, C#, Perl, RealBasic, VisualBasic, Lua, and many other languages going back to at least CLU in the mid 1970s) he's free to say so. There are plenty of other languages out there, and perhaps he will find one that he likes. Or he will continue to use Python, hating every minute of it. Or perhaps he'll even come to like the assignment model, and wonder how he ever could have found it bizarre. But it's rather rich for him to claim that his subjective feelings about Python's assignment model should be treated as objective fact. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
