[Python-ideas] Syntax idea for 2D lists\arrays

[Mikhail V]

Once there was a discussion about alternative list and arrays
creation and assignment syntaxes. I think this is one of things with room for
ideas and has frequent usage.
I've had some ideas for syntax long ago, and now I remembered it because of
the recent topic "Descouraging the implicit string concatenation".

Idea is a concept for 2D arrays/lists syntax, which should simplify
some editing boilerplate while working with arrays and improve
readability for bigger arrays.

Lets start with a simple list example :

L ===
    1   5   9   155
    53  44  44  34

returns a 2d list:
[[1, 5, 9, 155], [53, 44, 44, 34]]

Syntax rules here:
- "===" indicates parsing start (may be some other decorator)
- data block *always* starts on the new line and parsing always
   like in a "def:" block (by indentation, till next negative indent)
- new line is a next element
- white space separated inner elements (tabs, spaces)

Line continuation as usual:
L ===
    2  1  5 \
    3  4  6
returns:
[[2, 1, 5, 3, 4, 5]]


SPECIAL CASE: 1d list could be explicitly marked with e.g. *:

L ===*
    2  1  5  3  4  6
returns :
[2, 1, 5, 3, 4, 5]

Also in 1d case one might omit the line continuation \:

L ===*
    "msg1"
    "msg2"
    "error"

returns:
["msg1", "msg2", "error"]

IMO the latter looks nice and very useful for pretty-formatting
of string lists.

----

*Examples for working with 3D arrays:*

import numpy as np
A = np.zeros((2,3,2))

A[0,0] ===
    8  8
A[1] ===
    0    0
    155  1
    1    1

returns:
[[[   8.    8.]
  [   0.    0.]
  [   0.    0.]]
 [[   0.    0.]
  [ 155.    1.]
  [   1.    1.]]]

Compared to same operation in current syntax:

A[0, 0] = [8, 8]
A[1] = [
    [0,   0],
    [155, 1],
    [1,   1] ]

(which is ugly, though can be a bit more compact in simplest case)

I think these examples show the general idea already.

Pros:
- clean readable look
- copy-pasting tables from e.g. excel with little to no re-typing
- no more editing annoyance with trailing commas/brackets

Cons:
- less compact for trivail cases (newline always added)

-----

Problems that I see with this syntax:
*Comma-separated vs space separated*.

Space separated IMO better readable in general,
though single space can be too dense with some proportional
fonts. In this case two or more spaces could be better.

Also consider expressions inside arrays, e.g.:
SS ===*
    11 + 3  5  6
SS ===*
    11 + 3,  5,  6

I would not say comma really improves things here, but
opinions may vary.
Still, all in all, I am on the side of space-separated.
Also numpy uses space-separated with print() method by default.

------

How do you like such syntax? Maybe someone can come up
with counter-examples where such syntax will lead to ugly look?



Mikhail