[Python-Dev] Simple syntax proposal: "not is"

[Collin Winter]

On Jan 25, 2008 8:13 AM, Jameson Chema Quinn <jquinn at cs.oberlin.edu> wrote:
> I'm writing a source code editor that translates identifiers and keywords
> on-screen into a different natural language. This tool will do no
> transformations except at the reversible word level. There is one simple,
> avoidable case where this results in nonsense in many languages: "is not". I
> propose allowing "not is" as an acceptable alternative to "is not".
>
> Obviously English syntax has a deep influence on python syntax, and I would
> never propose deeper syntactical changes for natural-language-compatibility.
> This is a trivial change, one that is still easily parseable by an
> English-native mind (and IMO actually makes more sense logically, since it
> does not invite confusion with the nonsensical "is (not ...)"). The
> use-cases where you have to grep for "is not" are few, and the "(is
> not)|(not is)" pattern that would replace it is still pretty simple.

"not is" makes no sense to -- and is not easily parsed by -- my
English-native mind.

Collin Winter