[Python-Dev] statically nested scopes

[Eric S. Raymond]

Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org>:
> > To be honest, I don't think static nested scopes buy us all that
> > much. You can do the same now, by using keyword arguments which
> > isn't all that nice, but works great and makes the scope clearly
> > visible.
> 
> Yes.  It's a hack that gets employed over and over.  And it has
> certain problems.  We added 'import as' to get rid of a common
> practice that was perceived unclean.  Maybe we should support nested
> scopes to get rid of another unclean common practice?
> 
> I'm not saying that we definitely should add this to 2.1 (there's
> enough on our plate already) but we should at least consider it, and
> now that we have cycle GC, the major argument against it (that it
> causes cycles) is gone...

For whatever it's worth, I agree with both these arguments.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>

"The power to tax involves the power to destroy;...the power to
destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create...."
	-- Chief Justice John Marshall, 1819.