[Python-ideas] Documenting Python warts

[alex23]

On Jan 2, 1:08 pm, Oleg Broytman <p... at phdru.name> wrote:
>    So it's perfectly natural when people using one language expect
> features found in other languages, and expect those features to work in
> similar ways.

I think anyone coming from one language to another expecting the
latter to be just like the first is either an inexperienced or a bad
programmer.

There is no way you can make Python fit either the call by reference
or call by value models, although people regularly try, and the
attempt is always painful & torturous to watch. So already Python has
"deviated" drastically from the base expectations of most (generally
static-type lang'd) programmers. Is this a problem, or is this one of
the fundamental design decisions of Python that makes it appealing?
(For me, not having to deal with either of the call by reference or
value models is one of the main reasons I prefer to work with Python.)

The Lisp/Scheme community might take exception over claims that
addition is "always" an infix operation as well.

> Often
> people can tolerate the deviation, sometimes they even praise it for
> some reasons.

I don't really follow what you're trying to say here. I'm not
"tolerating" any "deviations" in Python, I'm actively using it because
I prefer its entire design. If anything, I'm choosing it _because_ it
deviates from other language's approaches. What you seem to be
advocating is that all languages be nothing more than syntactic sugar
for the same underlying model. In that case, what advantage is there
in having any language other than some baseline accepted one, like C?