Py3K idea: why not drop the colon?

[Michael Hobbs]

Ron Adam wrote:
> Michael Hobbs wrote:
>   
>> Ron Adam wrote:
>>     
>>> LOL,  of course it would.  I would expect that too after a suitable amount of 
>>> 'brain washing', oops, I mean training and conditioning. ;-)
>>>   
>>>       
>> Trust me, my brain is quite filthy and doesn't wash easily. I do 
>> appreciate aesthetics, which is why still stay with Python, even after 
>> programming in Ruby for several months. I've used Java/C/C++ for years, 
>> yet I make no complaint about the lack of static typing in Python. Even 
>> so, I'd like to think that I know a good thing when I see it.
>>     
>
> I find if I approach things on a learning basis and always presume there are 
> things I still don't know.  I then tend to get much more help and support than 
> if I approach things on a 'I'm right/your wrong' basis.  Also, if I do turn out 
> to have a point a view that is not exactly right, it is then much easier for me 
> to take a new position or even the reverse position and move on.
>
>   
To clarify my position, I'm not intentionally being contradictory. In 
fact, when I first posed my question, I asked if anyone had a good 
reason for why the redundancy should continue to exist. Expecting to get 
a nice grammatical counter-example, the only viable answer that anyone 
could come up with is the FAQ answer that it improves readability. Since 
then, I've been fighting my point that the colon really doesn't improve 
readability all that much.

In the end, I have to admit that I really couldn't give a flying frog if 
the colon is there or not. It's just a colon, after all. I *was* hoping 
that I could convince someone to honestly think about it and consider if 
the colon is really that noticeable. But so far, the only response that 
I've received is that there's that ABC study somewhere and that settles 
that.

- Mike