seeking deeper (language theory) reason behind Python design choice

[Rhodri James]

On 09/05/18 06:57, Chris Angelico wrote:
> On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 3:44 PM, Steven D'Aprano
> <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
>> On Tue, 08 May 2018 22:48:52 -0500, Python wrote:
>>> I've always felt that this mentality was insulting to the programmer:
>>> "You're too stupid to get this right."  Sure, I've created that bug in
>>> other languages (or rather its inverse) but not since college.  You make
>>> it a few times, you go nuts debugging it, you learn what it is, you
>>> never do it again.
>>
>> And fortunately we don't have to deal with a steady stream of new
>> programmers learning the language and making newbie errors, right?
>>
>> If all programmers were as awesome as you and never made typos, the world
>> would be a better place. But we know from experience that even
>> experienced C programmers can make this mistake by accident.
> 
> Yes, and I'd go further: I *am* too stupid to get this right.

Thirded.  I am a C and assembler programmer by trade, and I often type 
"=" for "==" when I'm coding quickly, and sometimes even when I'm trying 
to be careful.  I've met a lot of programmers over the years who assert 
that they are experienced enough not to make mistakes like that.  They 
are, without fail, embarrassed when I turn on the compiler warning flags.

-- 
Rhodri James *-* Kynesim Ltd