[Python-3000] Proposed changes to PEP3101 advanced string formatting -- please discuss and vote!

[Paul Moore]

On 14/03/07, Josiah Carlson <jcarlson at uci.edu> wrote:
>
> "Patrick Maupin" <pmaupin at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Thanks for the feedback.  For some reason, my post hasn't garnered
> > that much attention yet.  Do I need to post it on python-dev or
> > c.l.p., or are people just really busy with other things, or have I
> > breached some etiquette I don't yet understand?
>
> I would guess that people are busy and/or somewhat uninterested.
> Personally, I'm happy with '...'%(...), and commented on this feature
> because (like many other features) I would much prefer Python to be
> pretty.

I'm interested, but haven't had much time to review the PEP - as far
as I can see, there's a lot to it, and I'm not sure I'd have good
intuitions without trying the new functionality (something I haven't
had the opportunity or need to do so far).

FWIW, I tend to agree with most of Josiah's responses. In particular,
I'm afraid I hate the whitespace-sensitive alternative syntax. %...%
syntax would be a reasonable alternative for Windows users, but I take
your point that % is already magical. I'd stick with {foo} and ${foo}
(would you expect to allow the normal shortcut of $foo where foo is in
the form of a simple identifier?)

I get the impression you are close to having a publishable
implementation - I'd say, get it released and get some feedback from
real use. (If it's portable to 2.5, or even older versions, that is).
You can mark it as alpha and explicitly note that some design issues
still remain to be resolved.

Paul.