Python as Guido Intended

[Paul Boddie]

bonono at gmail.com wrote:
> And exactly what is "python's spirit/philosophy" ? It seems to me that
> they are often used in a liberal way, just to support one's argument
> that whatever is not in the CURRENT python should not be there.

Yes, those contentious terms "pythonic" and "unpythonic" which, as
someone recently pointed out, appear to be convenient tools to
respectively label one's own work as acceptable and someone else's work
as deficient.

I certainly don't have much time for people who, after the most cursory
inspection of Python, proclaim that it is substandard for not having
static typing or for employing indentation to organise source code, but
I do believe that people shouldn't be given the brush-off on more
subtle topics by some "Zen of Python" remark (probably not even
supported by the classic Tim Peters text). It should be noted that Zope
eventually experienced something of a backlash by encouraging such a
culture of obscure wisdom, and sometimes Python risks experiencing some
of the same. More documentation, explanation and objective discussion
help to bring the newcomer to understanding, rather than alienating
them with some kind of opaque, elitist retort which gives them no clue
as to how they may reach such understanding.

Paul