[Python-ideas] keyword arguments everywhere (stdlib) - issue8706

[Steven D'Aprano]

Guido van Rossum wrote:

>> if we go that route, could it be possible to implement range([start=0, ]
>> stop[, step=1]) such that they are positional only but mutliple arguments
>> are treated different than strictly sequential without writing conditional
>> code in Python to figure out each one's meaning at runtime.
> 
> Eew, I don't think this pattern is useful enough to support in syntax,
> even if one of the most popular builtins (but only one!) uses it.

I read this at first that you didn't approve of the range API.

I agree that the API is too specialized to take syntactical support, but I'd 
just like to put my hand up and say I like range's API and have very 
occasionally used it for my own functions. I see no point in having special 
syntax for it: this is a specialized enough case that I don't mind handling it 
manually.



-- 
Steven