It's still I, Miville

[François Miville-Dechêne]

You say in the definition of mappings that at present Python has only
one type of it, the dictionnary.  I suggest another one, the sparse
array, where absence of key would mean not absence of element but
presence of a default-value element, such as zero for sparse arrays in
the mathematical sense.  This would enable the use of mapping with the
distributive operators as I just suggested them in a previous e-mail.

I will be pestering you with my suggestions from time to time.  You say
Python is an evolving language, prove it.

To take on another subject, an object-oriented language such as yours
should explicitly tackle the Microsoft Office constructs, which even
though their actual binary coding is hidden from the public, are in
principle defined as hierarchically-embedded objects, and just for the
sake of legal definition Microsoft is liable to give the object-oriented
definition of the products its programs churn out.  VBasic does a bad
job with them (when it is functioning), you can do a better one.  I
personnaly don't like that much Office, but will it or not we are stuck
with their products for at least a decade.  Your product is free
(although profitable), VBasic is not.  You should intrude into
Microsoft's domain right at this place.  People are rightly scared when
they hear of VBasic, so they are turned off from programming altogether,
prefering to let the Microsoft monsters do all kinds of jobs by the
means of commands far more difficult to master than learning a
language.  Your language appears in a calculator fashion, the user is
reassured and feels empowered.  It is like a toy in his hands.  If he
could play with Microsoft objects with this toy, he would tackle many
jobs far more easily than at present.