Python 1.6 The balanced language

[lobozc at my-deja.com]

i'm commenting on this particular exchange:
> > language. Although, I think our BDFL would lean more towards a
> > Modula3+Haskell mixture =).
>
> Which only shows his good taste.
>
> pure-functional-programming-in-Modula3-is-a-pain-though-ly y'rs
> Peter

1) I'm very glad that Haskell seem to be in the picture. I'm even more
happy that list comprehensions have been added to 2.0. Adding
functional elements to Python - without sacrificing its imperative
roots - helps to differentiate it from other offerings. I hope this
trend will be continued.

2) Despite my predilection for it, functional programming is not
everything... Python is an imperative language at heart and an
interpreted one at that. It would make sense to have a quick look at
other higher level imperative languages and see what can be borrowed
from them for python.

3) My particular favourite is Icon (see www.cs.arizona.edu/icon).
Particular aspects of some interest to Python would be goal-directed
evaluation [saves helluva lot of lines of code...] and, less
importantly, generators and coexpressions. I have no idea how difficult
it would be to move these ideas to Python. But I (and many other
people) can vouch that these mechanisms are very effective in writing
very 'large' programs in a surprisingly small number of lines. I must
stress here that this happens not the way Perl does it - but rather
like in functional languages. That is: because of the built in
mechanisms of evaluation. So it is readable :-), not just terse.


>


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