PEP 259: Omit printing newline after newline

[Alex Martelli]

"Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk" <qrczak at knm.org.pl> wrote in message
news:slrn.pl.9ibh7p.2gn.qrczak at qrnik.zagroda...
> 11 Jun 2001 17:47:12 -0400, Andrew Kuchling <akuchlin at mems-exchange.org>
pisze:
>
> > -1; I'd rather see a strip_trailing_whitespace argument added to
> > .readlines(), or some alternative idiom encouraged that sidesteps the
> > issue.  Magical behaviour is bad.
>
> print is too magic in the first place. I would rather add write
> builtin function, equivalent to sys.stdout.write, and arrange that
> write functions are easy to use, i.e. allow multiple arguments,
> apply str to them, and maybe have also writeln.

Same here, except I don't think "write" is the best name (I'd
prefer for example "output", but I consider that minor) AND I
don't think two functions are ideal -- rather, one function
with a named parameter ln=1 (by default).  I.e., where your
suggestions might let one code:
    write(a,b,c)
    writeln(d,e,f)
I'd rather express it:
    output(a,b,c,ln=0)
    output(d,e,f)
(np for me if ln defaults the other way, or is called in
some other fashion).  But the differences between your
ideas and mine are basically syntax-sugar.

Besides several advantages for having this stuff in a function,
which I have already mentioned, consider:
    output(a,b,*manymore)
versus... what?
    print a,b,
    for item in manymore:
        print item,
    print
How's that for a statement's "convenience"?-)

Having the newline/nonewline choice in a named parameter
rather than in two different functions (or syntax forms
right now) is a tad more than just sugar:

    def linend(i, longish=longish):
        return i==len(longish)-1 or i%10==9

    # print no more than 10 per line
    for i in range(len(longish)):
        print longish[i],
        if linend(i):
            print
or
    # print no more than 10 per line
    for i in range(len(longish)):
        write(longish[i])
        if linend(i):
            writeln()
vs
    # print no more than 10 per line
    for i in range(len(longish)):
        output(longish[i], ln=linend(i))


Alex