Copy operator (was list.remove for Noivces)

[arthur.siegel at rsmi.com]

From:  "Delaney, Timothy" <tdelaney at a...>
Date:  Wed Nov 28, 2001  2:37 am
Subject:  RE: Copy operator (was list.remove for Noivces)


>> From: Arthur Siegel [mailto:ajs at i...]
>> But if  I could find some way to demonstrate (not  saying that I
> >necessarily could find a way to do so convincingly) that it would
> >indeed make Python better equipped for beginners/learners -
>>.is there a shot it would find acceptance by the community?

>Probably not, since the only thing it would be doing would be introducing
>syntactic sugar for something which Python already has.

Disagree strongly.  What is being accomplished is raising the visiblity
of the issue within the language itself. I would argue that the status quo
conspires to underplay the significance of the issues involved - no harm
done to those who already understand them.

One imports copy, like one imports cgi or tokenize. To a beginner, imports
from outside  modules  is strictly special purpose stuff. In my case it was a
long time before much beyond math ,os and sys perhaps, were anything
more than absolute exotica.

As I said, whether I am correct that it would be a significant enhancement
making Python better designed to get beginners aware  of and over some important
humps, is not where my larger doubts are.  Of course realizing a) I could be missing
something  (but I would need convincing) and b) even if I am not., that it would
be a long and - if the past be a guide - probably fruitless effort to try to convince folks there is
significant merit in my position.

My doubts are more as to the other implications that are more technical.  The
shallow/deep copy issue I understand is there and real - but I don't
really understand the issue itself.  I will do some homework.

Art