[Python-ideas] Support multiplication for sets

[Mike Meyer]

On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 8:55 AM, Calvin Spealman <ironfroggy at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 6:37 AM, Jakob Bowyer <jkbbwr at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > There is that but from a math point of view the syntax a * b does make
> sence.
> > Its slightly clearer and makes more sense to **people from outside of a
> programming background**.
>
> (emphasis added)
>
> These are not the only people writing and reading code, and decisions
> about syntax should favor improving the readability
> for coders across the board, not simply a single subset of them.
>

True. But unless there's another common meaning for multiplying sets, there
are only two groups of people to consider: Those who know it as the cross
product, and those who have no idea what it might mean. They former will be
surprised by the current situation when it doesn't work, the latter will
have to look it up when they run into it.

it's not really any worse than using + for string concatenation. Except for
the associativity issue.

    <mike
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