[Python-3000] Cleaning up argument list parsing (was Re: More wishful thinking)

[Talin]

Greg Ewing <greg.ewing <at> canterbury.ac.nz> writes:

> Talin wrote:
> 
> > In this case, however, I don't see why we can't have the keyword
> > arguments out of order.
> 
> But what's the *benefit* of being allowed to write that?
> 
> > The important thing is that the behavior be clear and unambiguous,
> > which I think this is.
> 
> It might be unambiguous, but I disagree completely about the
> 'clear'. Upon encountering such a call, I would have to stop and
> think quite hard, and probably go and consult the definition,
> to figure out what it's doing.

No worries. I'm only pressing the issue because I want to make
sure it gets examined before being dismissed; My primary concern
is more about the "keywords after varargs" aspect of it, and less
about the other stuff.

(Although, all other things being equal, when arguing over
whether a programming language should / should not allow
programmers to do certain things, I think the onus is on the
side advocating restriction to show why the programmer
should so be restricted; which is not to say that there aren't
good reasons, or that all other things *are* equal in this case.
Especially now that I've looked at the function calling code,
and I see why it would be difficult to implement.)

-- Talin