[Python-Dev] SyntaxError: can't assign to function call

[Guido van Rossum]

On 8/10/06, Phillip J. Eby <pje at telecommunity.com> wrote:
> That being said, the benefit of hypergeneralizing assignment seems small
> compared to its price.  So eliminating augmented assignment seems a more
> attractive way to get rid of the nuisance of the perennially repeated
> proposals to "fix" or otherwise extend it.  Sometimes it seems like half
> the time I want to use augmented assignment, I can't use it anyway for one
> reason or another, so it doesn't seem like that big of a loss.

I think you are strongly understimating the benefits of augmented
assignments. I held out against it for many years. But the users
didn't stop asking for it. They're mostly happy. That some aren't
happy until we've hypergeneralized it doesn't mean we shouldn't have
done it in the first place. (Similar as with lambda. :)

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)