Verbose and flexible args and kwargs syntax

[Chris Angelico]

On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 1:43 PM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> It merely happens that C's
> use of the notation % for the remainder operation likely influenced
> Python's choice of the same notation.

Considering that Python also had the notion that "integer divided by
integer yields integer" until Py3, I would say it's extremely likely
that most of Python's division facilities were modelled off C. That's
not a bad thing; gives you a set of operations that a large number of
people will grok, and only a small number of oddities.

> I note that the *semantics* of the operation differs in the two
> languages, as I understand that the behaviour of % with negative
> arguments is left undefined by the C standard, while Python does specify
> the behaviour.

... and there's the proof that "modelled off" does not mean "slavishly
follows". This lack of definition is a weakness in C.

> def foo(a, 2*b+1, c):  # double the second arg and add 1

No, that should subtract 1 from the second arg and halve it. The
expression you give there has to match the value from the parameter
list.

This syntax would be a huge boon to Python. Imagine how much easier
this could make things:

def foo(sum(x)):
    return x

print(foo(120)) # will print a list of numbers that sum to 120


ChrisA