[Edu-sig] On and off-topic [was Re: Elegant copy-by-value]

[Arthur]

Jaime write -

>From my experience with Internet mailing lists I >can tell you that even if
you
>are Mother Theresa, if you write too many off->topics subscribers will
consider
>you a nuisance and ignore you.

Which moves us nicely around the circle.

I can tell you that the question of the effect of the case sensivity on
Python as it effects new users was a vast topic here.

The fact that I missed a damn carriage return on my PyGeo.pth file  (or
missed understanding I needed to concern myself about it) is not something I
would expect to have you on the edge of your seat. True.  But I had no idea
that's where things were going.

I do think the issue of the potential impact on the overall learning
experience by a small change like moving "copy" from an import to a built_in
is *extremely* interesting, from a number of perspectives. Not that I'm
correct.  But it is an interesting proposition, I think.

You apparently don't. But I find it *so* interesting, that I'm surprised by
that.


As to Kirby's comments, I do know and follow the procedure.  A PEP.  And
SOP, if there has been any prior discussion with Gudio on the issue, is to
get a prelim from Guido as to whether one is wasting one's time.  Since this
is the forum in which Guido heard my reasoning, this seemed a perfectly
sensible forum to ask that very standard question.

In Guido's defense, perhaps he thought that there was something more than a
simply, sincere, straight-forward inquiry at work - knowing me.

In my defense, there was not. And had there not been some recent friendly
exchanges between us, I would have done more to try to signal that there was
not.

As to your suggstion that there was an implicit suggestion by Guido for me
to move the discussion to a forum like python-dev and and me with it, I will
make my first official attempt at channeling Guido:

God forbid.

Art