Suggested coding style

[MRAB]

On 24/09/2011 20:10, Tim Johnson wrote:
> * Passiday<passiday at gmail.com>  [110924 09:47]:
> <...>
>> I have been coding in many other languages, most of the time it was
>> Java and C#. I don't like the function mess of PHP (ie, loads and
>> loads of functions without any namespaces etc), but I'd like to think
>> that Python is different.
>    It is ...
>
>> In my brief coding experience I have stumbled upon Python zfill(width)
>> method, and I thought, really, do you have to include such a narrow-
>> purpose method in the basic method set? Perhaps there are more such
>> methods that are nice when you need them, but then again, you don't
>> put all the possible methods in the standard set.
>    I think that you have raised an interesting question here. I've
>    been coding in python for 9 years and I have never used it.
>
>> Perhaps there is reason such method is in the basic library, and my
>> complaints are unbased?
>
>    It could be some sort of legacy. I imagine we will hear from some
>    more senior pythonists on this matter.
>
The documentation says "New in version 2.2.2".

>> Or, perhaps the language is on course to bloat
>> out and get filled with tens and hundreds of special-purpose methods
>> that render the language structure chaotic?
>
>     From my observance, python has developed with care and prudence. I
>    have a feeling (instinctive of course), that Guido van Rossum
>    is/was more likely to say 'no' to a request for a new
>    implementation that Rasmus Lerdorf.
>