[Python-ideas] Making colons optional?

[Leif Walsh]

> [noise]

Sounds like there are a lot of fevered egos on both sides of the debate.

Personally, I like colons.  I'm sure if python forbade them, I'd stop
using it.  That said, the folks on the other side seem to have a good
argument in that "semicolons are optional; [sic] why aren't colons?"

I don't at all agree with the people calling them line noise or saying
that they hurt readability (seriously, what?), but it seems sensible
to allow the option.  After all, if you have to read someone's code,
there's a decent chance that you can use a style guide to force them
to use colons.  It's also probably not hard to hack the parser to
create a tool that simply adds or removes colons to or from old code
to make it conform to a new style guide, if this were necessary.

In short, the idiots that are against colons might be idiots, but at
least they seem to be more fair.

-- 
Cheers,
Leif