[issue44603] REPL: exit when the user types exit instead of asking them to explicitly type exit()

[Steven D'Aprano]

Steven D'Aprano <steve+python at pearwood.info> added the comment:

Please don't do this.

On Mon, Jul 12, 2021 at 02:19:58PM +0000, Pablo Galindo Salgado wrote:

> >>> exit
> bye!

This is a user-hostile and unfriendly UI for Python. The Python REPL is 
not a shell like bash etc, it should be safe to evaluate any builtin 
object at the interactive interpreter to view its repr without 
side-effects.

Especially not major side-effects such as exiting the interpreter with 
its total loss of program state.

The only motivation of this change is pure laziness to avoid typing 
parentheses when you want to call an object. I know that the creator of 
Perl famously says that laziness and hubris are virtues for programmers, 
but I disagree. Pandering to laziness in language design is not a 
virtue.

This does not add any new and improved functionality, or make the 
language better, or more friendly for beginners exploring things at the 
REPL. It is a useability regression, making it more hostile and 
unfriendly for people expecting to be able to view objects by entering 
them at the REPL without catastrophic side-effects, and the only benefit 
is to save two characters.

Having said that Pablo, I don't dislike your hack to make the exit repr 
pretend to be a confirmation message anywhere near as much. I don't 
think it is necessary, I think it looks even stranger when displaying 
the builtin namespace dict, but at least it is not a useability 
regression.

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue44603>
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