[Python-Dev] [Python-3000] Pre-pre PEP for 'super' keyword

[Tristan Seligmann]

* Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> [2007-04-29 18:19:20 -0700]:

> > In my mind, 'if' and 'or' are "syntax", whereas things like 'None' or
> > 'True' are "values"; even if None becomes an actual keyword, rather than
> > a builtin.
> 
> I'm sorry, but that is such an incredibly subjective difference that I
> can't do anything with it. String literals and numeric literals are
> syntax too, even though they are values. A keyword, or reserved word,
> is simply something that looks like an identifier but is converted
> into a different token (by the lexer or by something sitting between
> the lexer and the parse) before the parser sees it.

Let me try a less subjective description. Things like None, 2.3, 'foo',
True are values or "expressions"; I'm not certain exactly what the term
for these is in Python's grammar, but I basically mean something that
can be on the RHS of an assignment.. However, something like 'for' or
'if' is part of some other grammatical construct, generally a statement
or operator of some kind, so I tend to think of those differently.
-- 
mithrandi, i Ainil en-Balandor, a faer Ambar
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