Functionalism, aesthetics Was:(RE: I come to praise .join, not

[Russell E. Owen]

I completely agree. There is some elitism from some of the cognoscenti. 
And the pace of change is fast enough now that I think some ugly stuff 
is getting into the language despite the protests.

Having said that, I hasten to add that I am not part of the Python 
development team, but rather one of unwashed and sometimes-squashed 
masses. I hope someday to make a contribution, but for now, I'm a user. 
Hence there's only so much complaining one can do productively. I'm glad 
there are folks who care enough and are willing to put the time into 
maintaining the language.

-- Russell

In article <mailman.985052844.17993.python-list at python.org>,
 Carlos Ribeiro <carribeiro at yahoo.com> wrote:

>I'm lost for words... This summarizes a lot of concerns that sometimes I 
>find so hard to explain. Anyone who has actually *read* Christopher 
>Alexander's books on design should know that the best solutions are the 
>ones that take into account the inner sense of satisfaction of their end 
>users. As Alexander puts it itself, it is a rewarding experience born out 
>of the "completeness" of the solution. The best solutions also share 
>another common trait: they look *and feel* good to the untrained eye. 
>Beware of works that can only be appreciated by experts - they are way too 
>trained to see the obvious.
...