Should constants be introduced to Python?

[Michael Torrie]

On 11/15/2017 11:16 PM, Saeed Baig wrote:
> - Do you guys think it would be a good idea? Why or why not? Do you
> think there’s a better way to do it? I’d like to know what others
> think about this idea before making any formal submission.

Except for forcing it to be read-only, there's absolutely no difference
between your idea of a constant and a normal module name in Python.
Since Python is a dynamic language, all names have to be looked up at
run time.  So there's really no speed benefit to having a special const
syntax.  In Python, we normally expect developers to act as consenting
adults.  Thus a constant is often denoted by an uppercase name (at least
in the scripts I've seen), similar to C or other languages.  We can just
say to developers, please don't rebind a name that's all capitals.
That's it.

Constants as you propose really only make sense in statically-typed,
compiled languages where the compiler replaces the constant names with
the values in the compiled code.  Doesn't work that way in Python, where
things are interpreted at run time.

That's my opinion anyway.