call f(a, *b) with f(*a, **b) ?

[bukzor]

On May 23, 12:35 pm, "inhahe" <inh... at gmail.com> wrote:
> "
> I wish this worked:>>> def main(a,b,*argv): pass
> >>> options['argv'] = argv
> >>> main(**options)
>
> TypeError: main() got an unexpected keyword argument 'argv'
> "
> -----
> I was thinking about that exact same thing actually.  Except that I was
> thinking you might want it like this, otherwise it could be ambiguous:
>
> >>> def main(a,b,*argv): pass
> >>> options['*argv'] = argv
> >>> main(**options)
>
> Weird I know, to put the * operator inside the string.  I suppose the
> necessity of doing that just shows why it wasn't implemented in the first
> place.  But still, it would be neat...
>
> Also, of course, you could then do
> main(*argv=[2,3])
>
> or rather
>
> main(*argv=[3,4],a=1,b=2) #in random order

Yes I think something like that would be an improvement. I wonder if
anyone would help me write a PEP... It might not be too hard to pass
since it would be compatible with all existing code. I'd be willing to
produce a patch against python2 or py3k.

I don't see that leaving off the * makes it ambiguous, since there can
only be one argument with that name:
def f(args, *args): pass
SyntaxError: duplicate argument 'args' in function definition