Python from Wise Guy's Viewpoint
Terry Reedy
tjreedy at udel.edu
Mon Oct 20 13:19:37 EDT 2003
<mike420 at ziplip.com> wrote in message
> lacks uniformity here (think "print" and "del").
Unlike Lisp, Python write special forms as statements instead of in
function syntax, which means that in Python, everything that looks
like a function call is a function call. print could almost be a
function, except that print (a,) is different from print (a). even
though as functions they would be the same. For del, it is necessary
that the 'argument' expression *not* be evaluated. Let x=1. Then del
x and del 1 are different (the latter an error), while del(x) and
del(1) would be synonyms.
> You, Pythonista, are like naive little children who have to be
Someone who does not seem to know the difference between functions and
special forms (to use the Lisp/Scheme terminology) should not blab.
Terry J. Reedy
More information about the Python-list
mailing list