[Python-Dev] Python 1.7 tokenization feature request

[David M. Beazley]

gvwilson@nevex.com writes:
 > 
 > 'S funny --- my non-programmer friends can't figure out why any sane
 > person would use a glorified glass TTY like emacs... or why they should
 > have to, just to program...

Look, I'm all for CP4E and making programming more accessible to the
masses, but as a professional programmer, I frankly do not care what
non-programmers think about the tools that I (and most of the
programming world) use to write software.  Furthermore, if all of your
non-programmer friends don't want to care about the underlying
details, they certainly won't care how programs are
represented---including a nice and *simple* text representation
without markup, entities, and other syntax that is not an essential
part of the language.  However, as a professional, I most certainly DO
care about how programs are represented--specifically, I want to be
able to move them around between machines. Edit them with essentially
any editor, transform them as I see fit, and be able to easily read
them and have a sense of what is going on.  Markup is just going to
make this a huge pain in the butt. No, I'm not for this idea one
bit. Sorry.

 > I just think that someone's going to do this
 > for some language, some time soon, and I'd rather Python be in the lead
 > than play catch-up.

What gives you the idea that Python is behind?  What is it playing
catch up to?

-- Dave