[Python-ideas] keyword arguments everywhere (stdlib) - issue8706

Sat Mar 3 00:09:19 CET 2012

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 2:49 PM, Ethan Furman <ethan at stoneleaf.us> wrote:
>> Terry Reedy wrote:
>>> On 3/2/2012 3:32 PM, Ethan Furman wrote:
>>>>>>> So something like:
>>>>>>>> def ord(char, ?):
>>>>>>>> def split(self, char, ?, count)
>>>>>>>> def canary(breed, ?, color, wingspan, *, name)
>>>>>> That is probably better than using '$' or directly tagging the names.
>>>> I chose '?' because it has some similarity to an incompletely-drawn 'p', and
>> also because it suggests a sort of vagueness, as in not being able to
>> specify the name of the argument.
>> I'd rather not start using a new punctuation character for this one
> very limited purpose; it might prevent us from using ? for some other
> more generic purpose in the future.
>> Alternative proposal: how about using '/' ? It's kind of the opposite
> of '*' which means "keyword argument", and '/' is not a new character.
>
So it would look like:
 def ord(char, /):
 def split(self, char, /, count)
 def canary(breed, /, color, wingspan, *, name)
I think I like that better -- it stands out, and it looks like a barrier 
between the positional-only and the positional-keyword arguments.
~Ethan~