[Python-ideas] Change repr(Ellipsis) to '...'

[Mike Graham]

On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 7:21 PM, dag.odenhall at gmail.com
<dag.odenhall at gmail.com> wrote:
> Now that it is valid in any expressions, I'd argue the repr should
> reflect the literal syntax. There are however some reasons this might
> not be desirable: ellipsis is used to represent recursive objects, and
> by reprlib when summarizing long reprs. Thus there would be ambiguity.
> A counter-argument may be that a repr isn't intended to be completely
> unambiguous, reversible or parseable - in deed many objects mimic the
> literal syntax of builtin types even though they add special behavior.
> I was going to give os.environ as an example here, and then learned
> this is no longer the case in Python 3, so maybe it is after all seen
> as undesirable. :)
>
> Anyway: discuss!

I think the current state is a lot more helpful in debugging, and that
making repr(...) be "..." would result in occasional confusion but no
positive effects.

Mike