Enums: making a single enum

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 26 May 2018 23:54:51 +1000, Chris Angelico wrote:

> Seems pretty non-controversial, which means it's almost guaranteed to
> reach 100+ posts debating what the name should be.

Including:

* 27 posts declaring that using such singleton symbols is completely
  un-Pythonic and is sure to doom Python to irrelevancy;

* 13 posts stating that whether it is spelled "Symbol(name)" or 
  "Atom(name)" it will be completely confusing;

* 4 posts proposing spelling it "~~name!" instead;

* 25 posts agreeing that the functionality is important, but
  should only be allowed inside functions whose name starts 
  with a vowel;

* 11 posts insisting it should only be functions starting
  with a consonant;

* 3 posts saying it shouldn't be allowed in functions at all,
  only in module-level try...except statements, and only so
  long as there are no list comprehensions used in the module;

* 18 posts demanding a complete list of every use-case for the
  feature and why using object()/strings/enums/ints isn't
  sufficient;

* 7 posts stating that the author would personally use it if it
  were a built-in, and they wouldn't bother installing a third-
  party package from PyPI for it, but nevertheless it should be
  put on PyPI first to see if there is any community interest;

* 12 posts cherry-picking programming languages invented between
  August 2003 and May 2015 by people whose name starts with "B",
  proving categorically that the modern trend is to avoid this
  feature;

* and 17 posts discussing the history of Forth and Intercal.


Good thing I didn't propose a short-hand syntax for it as well :-)




-- 
Steven D'Aprano
"Ever since I learned about confirmation bias, I've been seeing
it everywhere." -- Jon Ronson