A Suggestion for Python Colon Syntax

[Tim Peters]

[Vadim Zeitlin]
> BTW, what was the real rationale for adding composed assignment
> operators (+=) to Python 2.0 (which I'm really extremely glad to
> have now)? Wasn't it meant to make Python more attractive to the
> people coming from C-lie languages?

[Thomas Wouters]
> No, honestly not. If that was the case, '++' and '--' would have
> been added too. The funny part is that I never saw a concious
> decision not to add them being made, everyone involved (Guido,
> Michael Hudson, me, the rest of python-dev) seemed to naturally
> accept that the auto-inc/dec operators had no place in Python, and
> that in itself is plenty of validation, don't you think ? :-)

++ and -- were explictly suggested and explicitly rejected innumerable times
on c.l.py, and on the Python mailing list before c.l.py came into glorious
being.  In fact, when Guido is deciding whether to invite someone into
python-dev, he sends us secret email asking "hey!  do you think this guy
would approve of adding ++?" <wink>.

> Guido-probably-made-all-decisions-about-Python-years-ago--he's-just-
>    waiting-for-people-to-_implement_-them-ly y'rs,

Indeed, that was very much the case for augmented assignment, listcomps and
Unicode, and is currently the case for rich comparisons and reworking the
coercion model.  It will be the case for healing the type/class split.

Python is like the Sistene Chapel that way:  Guido already knows how it will
look in the end, it's just taking years of tedious painting to get there
<wink>.

and-nobody-guessed-brushes-would-wear-out-so-fast-ly y'rs  - tim