gratuitous new features in 2.0

[Manuel Gutierrez Algaba]

On Sat,  Guido van Rossum <guido at beopen.com> wrote:
>"John W. Baxter" <jwbnews at scandaroon.com> writes:
>> Guido is so darn sharp that it's easy to agree which his 
>> positions...particularly after he's had a give and take with other darn 
>> sharp folks and taken their good ideas into account.
>
>Thanks! ;-)  Please take the following idea into account:
>
>Suppose you have written a function that uses the print statement:
>
>    def table(n):
>	for j in range(1, n+1):
>	    for i in range(1, n+1):
>		print i, 'x', j, '=', i*j
>	    print
>
>Now you are asked to make it print to another file -- a standard
>example of how software typically is asked to evolve.

What about ?:

def table(n, file=None):
     for j in range(1, n+1):
         for i in range(1, n+1):
             if file:
                 file.write(`i` " x "  `j` " = " `i*j`)
             else:  
                 print  i, 'x', j, '=', i*j
         if file:
              file.write("\n") 
         else:
              print

And, without knowing it, you've given a definitive _good_
reason to keeping prints:
"""
The syntax  i, 'x', j, '=', i*j
is __much__ clearer and simpler than __any other else__
especially than ("%d * %d = %d\n" % (i, j, i*j))
"""
Perhaps we could have a generate a new syntax por a 
"i, 'x', j, '=', i*j"-expression.

Having print/write as a function would fine too, but 

print is not only the print but the "comma-separated" expresion!

Hoping-to-being-as-sharp-as-guido-'ly yours
---
MGA