If you want X, you know where to find it (was Re: do...until wisdom needed...)

[Alex Martelli]

"Rainer Deyke" <root at rainerdeyke.com> wrote in message
news:UVhD6.44136$J%5.14917196 at news2.rdc2.tx.home.com...
    [snip]
> It is often necessary to add something before something can be taken away.
> If one new feature makes two old features redundant, adding it would work
> toward the goal of increased simplicity even while adding temporary
> complexity.  I suspect this may apply to procedural macros.

I suspect it would not.  We'll see when Doug makes the
patches to go with his forthcoming PEP what current
Python "features" become redundant and can be removed,
of course -- discussing it in a vacuum is not very
productive.  But as I recall, for example, nothing
went away from Scheme when hygienic macros were added;
some of the old stuff might be "defined in terms of
HMs" for a language lawyer, but from the POV of 99.44%
of the language users this is unproductive sophistry.


Alex