Optional Underscores (py3k)?

[François Pinard]

Pete Shinners <pete at visionart.com> writes:

> With all the talk case insensitive Python.  I was thinking about it [...]

Hi, Pete.

First of all, and sad for me, your message was a bit difficult to read,
because it was missing the usual English capitalisation, and some of the
usual punctuation.  (I restored these somewhat, before replying, just
for being able to, but this should not be the recipient of an email to do
such things.)  This is exactly what I fear with Python.  The same we all
routinely exchange email, we will also routinely exchange Python code,
especially if Python becomes spoken by a lot of people.  I want all the
luck possible for the Python code I receive to be legible, without feeling
compelled to rewrite it first.  I hope Python will give me that luck,
by ensuring a capitalisation which is both consistent and proper.

> and realized this is very similar to allowing optional underscores on
> object names as well.  [...]  In the end I'm not advocating the future
> either way, but I do believe if Python becomes case-insensitive, it
> might also behoove things to become underscore-insensitive.

Alice studies shown that new users are prone to making capitalisation error.
Other studies will surely show that new users are prone to forgetting
underscores, to misspelling identifiers, or using the wrong kind of
brackets, parentheses or braces, commas, colons.  Many things, really.
If Python ever becomes ubiquitous, be sure that studies will abound.

I hope Guido will not give in allowing all kinds of misspelling and errors.
Wrong casing is nothing more than a way to misspell.  When ugly-written
Python code will fly all around my head, I guess I'll loose my sensitivity
to Python.  And then, if Guido was only seeing me, he would surely be
moved by my sore, and my bitter cries. :-)

-- 
François Pinard   http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard