[Python-Dev] Set the namespace free!

[Reid Kleckner]

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 11:49 AM, Alexander Belopolsky
<alexander.belopolsky at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 12:53 PM,  <gregory.smith3 at sympatico.ca> wrote:
>> I'm very amused by all the jokes about turning python into perl, but there's
>> a good idea here that doesn't actually require that...
>
> No, there isn't.  And both '&' and '|' are valid python operators that
> cannot be used this way.
>
> If you want ::, I think you can find a language or two to your liking. :-)

A syntax for escaping reserved words used as identifiers is a worthy
and interesting idea, but I don't think it's worth adding to Python.
Appending '_' in the kinds of cases described by the OP is what's
suggested by the style guide, and seems acceptable to me.

Prefixing all reserved words with punctuation as suggested by the OP
is, of course, completely ludicrous.  He might just be trolling.

Reid

P.S. "I'm not trolling!"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMLrA_0O5I

P.P.S.  Sorry, I couldn't help it.