Are Python's reserved words reserved in places they dont need to be?

[Kay Schluehr]

Carl Banks wrote:
> metaperl wrote:
> > -->  python -i
> > >>> class = "algebra"
> >   File "<stdin>", line 1
> >     class = "algebra"
> >           ^
> > SyntaxError: invalid syntax
> > >>>
> >
> >
> > Why isn' t the parser smart enough to see that class followed by an
> > identifier is used for class definition but class followed by equals is
> > a simple assignment?
>
> Hmm.  Someone called "metaPERL" is asking why Python doesn't have a
> more complicated grammar.  Why does this not surprise me?  :)

Yeah. But elimination of all keywords and replacement by punctuation is
clearly an alternative. One might just start with:

@class X(object):
    @def __init__(self):
       @print "an X"

and move on to:

@% X(object):
    @_ _init__(self):
       >> "an X"

That's all still LL(1) parsable.