Hi All-- Tony Meyer wrote: > > >> (Those who are offended by sweeping generalisations should > >> ignore this next bit) > [...generalisation bit snipped...] > > This is not only bullshit, it's elitist bullshit. "Windows users are > > more clueless than users of posix systems." Pfui. Prove it > > or withdraw it. > > Sigh. I guess you didn't read or understand the first sentence? >
Yes, I read and understood it. Saying "Don't read this if you don't want to be offended" doesn't make an offensive statement inoffensive. > >> This (readability without knowing the language/standard > >> libraries) is a huge benefit of using Python. > > > > It's overrated. It must be macho to say "I learned Python without > > reading books." > > No it is not. Have you used Python as pseudocode when teaching people how > to program? Many people have. That's just one example. > I grant that Python is much easier to learn than other programming languages; students can pick up the basics rapidly. Once the basics are mastered and mentoring is over, reliance on guess and intuition is not a substitute for documentation, or for reading the code if documentation is not available. > People can subclass Path and add it if they really want it. They can use > Jason's original module. My position is that the PEP without this use of > __div__ is (a) better as a standard module, and (b) improves the chance of > the PEP being accepted. > I disagree. Using __div__ to mean path concatenation is no worse than using __add__ to mean string concatenation, and it is both easy to remember (once the manual is read) and easy to type. Requiring users who want / to mean what it has always meant in the path module is neither easy nor intuitive. On the face of it, Jason would seem to agree, since he created / as a synonym for joinpath(). However, if the intention here is to create something different from Jason's original module, create something different and call it by another name than path; don't attempt to guess "what Jason really meant." It is not Pythonic to guess. Metta, Ivan ---------------------------------------------- Ivan Van Laningham God N Locomotive Works http://www.andi-holmes.com/ http://www.foretec.com/python/workshops/1998-11/proceedings.html Army Signal Corps: Cu Chi, Class of '70 Author: Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
