seeking deeper (language theory) reason behind Python design choice

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 2:31 PM, Python <python at bladeshadow.org> wrote:
> On Wed, May 09, 2018 at 03:57:35PM +1000, Chris Angelico wrote:
>> On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 3:44 PM, Steven D'Aprano
>> > 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.
>
> No, you are not.  Do you ever say "dog" when you mean "dot" instead?
> Do you ever say "dad" when you mean "mom" instead?  Internalize that
> "=" is "equals" (or "assigns" if you prefer) and "==" is "is equal to"
> then use those phrases in your head when you're thinking about which
> one you need in your code, and I'm pretty sure you'll stop making this
> mistake.  It may help that the phrase with twice as many syllables
> represents the operator that has twice as many characters.  Eventually
> it becomes second nature, like not calling Dad "Mom."

Riiiight, of course. Because prevention of bugs is just a matter of
wanting to. You remind me of a previous boss of mine, who didn't
understand why debugging ever had to happen - he thought that if the
programmers he employed would just take a bit more care, they could
write perfect code.

And commits like this never happen:
https://github.com/Rosuav/MustardMine/commit/ca0b1f47b2fe4438caea549410e1f1296798ba56

Let me break it to you gently: you are flat out wrong. Yep, that's as
gentle as I can make it.

ChrisA