Default parameters

[Terry Reedy]

"Paul Rubin" <http://phr.cx@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote
in message
news:7xad5o7xjw.fsf at ruckus.brouhaha.com...
> Carl Banks <imbosol at aerojockey.invalid> writes:
> > But I hope the reason you want this is because
it's less surprising,
> > more intuitive, more useful, or whatnot, and
not just because Common
> > Lisp did it that way.  Because people who
can't see the side of any
> > computer programming argument except in the
context of Common Lisp are
> > just pathetic.
>
> It avoids the need for ridiculous kludges to
check whether there is a
> real arg there or not, etc.  I'd prefer that
Python had used the CL
> method in the first place since I find the
Python method bizarre and
> counterintuitive.

Now that I know you are wishing for the 'CL
method', which I have no knowledge or experience
of, I can better understand why our sense of
'ridiculous kludge', 'bizarre', and
'counterintuitive' are somewhat different.

Terry J. Reedy