In article <mailman.8796.1396354601.18130.python-l...@python.org>, Antoon Pardon <antoon.par...@rece.vub.ac.be> wrote:
> On 01-04-14 12:58, Chris Angelico wrote: > > But because, in the future, Python may choose to create new operators, > > the simplest and safest way to ensure safety is to put a boundary on > > what can be operators and what can be names; Unicode character classes > > are perfect for this. It's also possible that all Unicode whitespace > > characters might become legal for indentation and separation (maybe > > they are already??), so obviously they're ruled out as identifiers; > > anyway, I honestly do not think people would want to use U+2007 FIGURE > > SPACE inside a name. So if we deny whitespace, and accept letters and > > digits, it makes good sense to deny mathematical symbols so as to keep > > them available for operators. (It also makes reasonable sense to > > *permit* mathematical symbols, thus allowing you to use them for > > functions/methods, in the same way that you can use "n", "o", and "t", > > but not "not"; but with word operators, the entire word has to be used > > as-is before it's a collision - with a symbolic one, any instance of > > that symbol inside a name will change parsing entirely. It's a > > trade-off, and Python's made a decision one way and not the other.) > > This mostly makes sense to me. The only caveat I have is that since we > also allow _ (U+005F LOW LINE) in names which belongs to the category > <puctuation, connector>, we should allow other symbols within this > category in a name. > > But I confess that is mostly personal taste, since I find names_like_this > ugly. Names-like-this look better to me but that wouldn't be workable > in python. But maybe there is some connector that would be aestetically > pleasing and not causing other problems. Semi-seriously, let me suggest (names like this). It's not valid syntax now, so it can't break any existing code. It reuses existing punctuation in a way which is a logical extension of its traditional meaning, i.e. "group these things together". -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
