<> vs != was Re: A Suggestion for Python Colon Syntax

[Brad Clements]

"Tim Peters" <tim.one at home.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.977446446.16022.python-list at python.org...

> Guido abhors gratuitous variations in coding sytle; that's largely why
> indentation is used instead of curly braces or begin/end to begin with.  A
> choice about whether or not to use a colon is simply not something people
> *need*.  The few places Python allows gratuitous choices today are places
> Guido regrets (although not enough to lose sleep over <wink>).  For
example,
> Guido is unhappy that both "<>" and "!=" are accepted to mean "not equal";
> the older "<>" survives only for compatibility with a very early release
of
> the language.

Horrors, I just checked some of my code and find that I use both != and <>
in the same module!

I don't know why.. Python is so easy to write for, I just use whatever is
easier to type, so if my hands are low on the keyboard, out comes <> ..
hands higher up then !=

I think I'll stick with <>, but then I'll have to *think* about the syntax,
rather than the algorithm.. something I normally don't have to do in
Python.. What a lovely language.