[Python-Dev] PEP 572: Do we really need a ":" in ":="?

[Fred Drake]

On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 9:02 PM Alexander Belopolsky
<alexander.belopolsky at gmail.com> wrote:
> What happened to the "consenting adults" philosophy?

Just anecdotally, I've run into a number of professionals recently
who've come out of Java environments who really dislike the
"consenting adults" approach.  While they value much that Python
offers them, they still really want some of the hand-holding languages
like Java give them.  What exactly they identify as "compelling"
varies based on their past experiences, but it's not completely
without reason.  The reasoning is often tied to providing APIs
"less-experienced" programmers can use without breaking things.

Some of these programmers at least claim to understand that bigger
risks come from not dealing with API boundaries that check input
values carefully, or that don't deal cleanly with exception
propagation; that seems to be fairly difficult for many.  The
idiomatic models I've found most desirable in Python are not as widely
valued as I'd hope.

It's hard to say what that tells us, and I think we'd want more
quantifiable evidence before drawing conclusions.  The prevalence of
expectation that an API constrains the mechanics of how it is used is
something I find surprising.  While I can suspect that it's misguided,
I keep running into situations where code needs to be maintained by
people who just aren't as familiar with the idioms I'm accustomed to,
so... considering the issue has value.


  -Fred

--
Fred L. Drake, Jr.    <fred at fdrake.net>
"A storm broke loose in my mind."  --Albert Einstein