[Python-ideas] What about allowing '?' in method names?

[Guido van Rossum]

Adding '?' to identifiers in Python ain't gonna happen.

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 11:11 AM, Lucas Prado
Melo<lucaspradomelo at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Greg Falcon <veloso at verylowsodium.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 9:01 PM, Tennessee
>> Leeuwenburg<tleeuwenburg at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > def shouldSomethingHappen?(self, context):
>>
>> > I just think it looks nicer, and is a good hint that a true/false or
>> > other
>> > kind of flag is likely to come back.
>>
>> Two problems I immediately see with this:
>>
>> 1) '?' is punctuation, and uninitiated readers are likely to guess
>> that it is some sort of postfix operator.
>
> Actually, Ruby allows this notation and, until now, I have not seen many
> complains about it.
> Despite that, its use would be pretty clear for the beginner, since it would
> be associated with meaningful identifiers:
>
> oil_tank.isItFull?()
>
> The worst problem could be the useless parenthesis after the '?' sign.
>
>>
>> 2) IPython gives a special meaning to ?, and it would be a shame to
>> collide with that.
>
>  IMHO, IPython might not be mature enough to interfere with Python design
> decisions yet.
>
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--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)