(1) Why the name "python" ?
(2) What role do you see python as fulfilling or in what direction do
you anticipate its evolution ?
( Perhaps it *can* be "all things to all people", but I wonder if there
aren't some potential conflicts ahead between python as:
an interactive environment & command interpreter.
a command scripting language
a general purpose scheme-like symbol processing language
a GENERAL purpose high level language for everything else
an object oriented language
whatever else...
I see python as potentially good in all these roles, but perhaps
the needs and priorities differ. An interactive language needs
conciseness, even if it creates syntactic irregularity. Regularizing
built-in data types with user-objects, which would seem to be one
desirable direction, might conflict with adding more built-in's
( like vectors, for example ) for effeciency. )
--- One issue I will raise ( re: regularizing built-ins and objects ): I suggest that hooks to change the print representation of an object are desirable. Obviously, for user objects, one can write a '.print' method function for the object, and maintain the convention of consistently using that name ( or "._print" ). But it would be better if you could override "`" (backquote) for both user objects and built-in data types. COMMON-LISP has this capability: It comes in handy when you are dealing with large vectors/lists/tuples/etc. Instead of waiting for your terminal to print out a thousand number, you can change the print representation to be something like: "List of size=1024 : ( 0, 1, 2, ... 1021, 1022, 1023 )" Minimally, you should be able to change the string backquote returns. Maximally, you should be able to change the action when evaluating a symbol, i.e. , currently typing a symbol causes the equivalent to 'print `symbol` ' to occur. Instead of: >>> a = [ 1,2,3,4,5 ] >>> a [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ] Typing 'a' could cause a plot of the values in a window. ( Probably this last is too much, and should be left to a user-level interpreted written on top of python. )In general, I think that regularization of built-in data types and user written objects is a good direction: allow operators like '+' to be defined for user-objects, and let built-ins be used as classes for inheritance. i.e. "class myList() = list: "
- Steve
======== "If you have a hammer, find a nail" - George Bush,'91 ========= Steven D. Majewski University of Virginia Physiology Dept. sdm7g@Virginia.EDU Box 449 Health Sciences Center Voice: (804)-982-0831 1600 Jefferson Park Avenue FAX: (804)-982-1616 Charlottesville, VA 22908