Exiting from python shell

[Mark Elston]

* James Stroud wrote (on 7/18/2007 4:27 PM):
> Tobiah wrote:
>> For years now, I've been exiting the shell by typing 'exit\n',
>> being chid by the shell, and then typing ^D.  I can't
>> remember a time that I typed the ^D the first time.  Call
>> me an idiot if you must, but since someone took the trouble
>> to catch the command 'exit' in a special way, would it have
>> been so awful to just let it be a way to exit when the shell?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Toby
>>
> 
> Yes, this would have required a ground-up approach to redesigning the 
> python language, transmuting it to something like a cross between lisp 
> and COBOL and would have rendered it impossible to author with C because 
> of the way C implements pointers--hardcoding in assembly would likely be 
> required. Beyond that, exiting an interpreter is not known in computer 
> science and has been shown impossible by Goedel himself in a series of 
> monographs on the topic. Thus, to exit python via a keyword would 
> require also reformulating mathematics as we know it. Furthermore, such 
> a change would propagate itself, via the observer effect, to the 
> behavior of sub atomic particles via ill-defined quantum-mechanical 
> affects and would likely result in the reversal of the Second Law of 
> Thermodynamics, wherein your refrigerator would end up heating its 
> contents and milk would spontaneously spoil, among other anomalies.
> 
> For these reasons, you might propose a "quit" keyword.
> 
> James
> 

You know, some answers simply *must* be saved for posterity....

Mark