Language change and code breaks

[Bjorn Pettersen]

> From: Guido van Rossum [mailto:guido at digicool.com]
> 
> > I'm still wondering what advantage there is to crippling the
> > expressivity of a language for the sake of a small group of
> > non-programmers.
> 
> IMO there are two non-truths in this statement.
> 
> (1) The expressivity of the language is not crippled.
> 
> (2) Potentially, the group of non-programmers is much larger than the
>     group of programmers (and it's easier to teach programmers an
>     arbitrary rule than non-programmers).

TRuE, tHe ExPRESsiVity oF ThE lANGuaGE is ProBAbLY nOt cRipPled,
hOWEvEr, tHere ARe SigNIficantLy FeweR ideNtIFIeRs AVaILABlE whICh mEAns
iT is LESs eXPRessIvE. IN pArTicULar, cOMmON Idioms liKE naMiNg CLASseS
stArTiNg WiTh UppER cASE lETtERS, AND instaNCeS OF THose cLAsSes
begINNiNG with A lOwER caSE LettER CaN NO LongeR Be usED.

AS fAR aS thE Size Of thE VARious camPs, I haVE YeT tO sEe a coMPeLLinG
aRGuMeNt thAT THE grOup of noN-pRoGRaMmeRS THat WILl taKe up
pRoGRAmmInG, ANd wiLL DO sO in PYTHon InsTEad oF VisUal BasiC, Is any
LARGeR Than The groUp of ProgRAmmERs.

-- bJoRn