John, Your hilarious... I mean it, and as a compliment. But seriously, I think your taking a discussion about trends and twisting them to be about absolutes. Maybe others are too.
But, forgive the cheesy paraphrasing, but the solution should be as simple as possible, and no simpler. There is no real problem with choosing a set of coding principals and sticking with them. Honestly, I don't think there currently exists a good method of comparing true software quality. So most discussion on which coding principals are actually useful, is kinda like talkin to miss Cleo. Still there is some value in seeing how closely software can align with certain principals. Right now we are asking questions about terseness. The obvious follow up is what relation does terseness have to quality? We are in a better postition to answer the second question if we know the first. When our preconceived notions cause us to study something, they should be encouraged. When our preconceived notions cause us to say, "forget it, a waste of time", we should question them. I don't think anyone in this discussion has shown themselves to be a zealot. For the most part we've just been asking questions. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list