[Python-Dev] Features for Python 2.0

[Thomas Wouters]

On Tue, Jul 25, 2000 at 04:43:57PM +0300, Moshe Zadka wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Jul 2000, Thomas Wouters wrote:

> > All in all, the only way we are really going to spot these pitfalls,
> > realistic or not, is by *using* the new syntax, and letting 'newbies' use
> > it.

> Without arguing with the specifics, I'm against this attitude: what will
> you do if you find newbies always stumble over those issues? You can't
> take it out, because you're commited to backwards compatability.

I didn't suggest we turned augmented assignment 'on' in beta phase, and
removed it if it turned out too confusing. I was thinking more along the
lines of the recent 'usability study' of parallel loops. Urging people to
install the patch just to see how it works, and if it works how they
expected.

The point is we can argue all year long about how <this> will be confusing
because of <that>, and <this> too confusing for users of <that>, and this
too confusing if you come from <that> language. We probably all are right,
too ! But in the end we have to decide whether the new functionality is
worth the extra confusion. And part of that is determining how confusing the
new syntax and semantics really are, for those used to Python and those new
to Python.

-- 
Thomas Wouters <thomas@xs4all.net>

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