[Python-ideas] Retire or reword the "Beautiful is better than ugly" Zen clause

[Mikhail V]

On Thu, Sep 13, 2018 at 11:39 AM Samantha Quan <sammiequan at yandex.com> wrote:

>
> One alternative to that clause I could think of is "Clean is better than dirty",
> but please do speak up if you have better ideas.

"Clean is better than hairy!"   :-D


> I ask you to give this change serious consideration,

On a serious note:

1. Even if this slogan will be changed - it's an old folklore and it's
written in many places,
so at best it can be changed only in few places. Therefore your wish
will not be satisfied anyway.
And why care? I've started using Python long before I even knew there
is such a thing
called "Zen of Python".

2. Trying to take the word "ugly" out of the context and pretend it's
offensive or
sexism or something - are you serious about that? If so - then sorry,
it borders with absurd.
I could understand possible bad associations with the word "slave",
but "ugly" is an general
purpose word like e.g. big, small, tall, heavy, etc.

3. As for the wording -  TBH, I think "Beautiful is better than ugly"
sounds slightly crude,
not because of possible associations, but for a topmost slogan - I
find it not the most elegant
wording to be honest.  And I don't know what can be really 'beautiful'
in _any_ code.
Ugly - yes, it's often can be  said about the code which is full of
redundant punctuation, bad formatting, etc.
But this  sound strange: "this code is beautiful". Do people really
say like that?

I think "clean" is a better adjective for the code. I'd say:
"Clean is better than untidy"
more elegant wording, but anyway, it would not really change anything.