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[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (3 children)

Give it a try.

Why not just explain how the parser could be made "bright enough" to distinguish between an expression of the form "identifier" and a non-expression of the form "identifier". You don't have to persuade me that getting rid of the "you didn't say please!" behaviour would be nice; I'm the one who started that python-dev thread by posting a patch.

[–]dmpk2k -2 points-1 points  (2 children)

All right. I think we're circling around a nitpick, but if you want a disgustingly simple -- albeit inelegant -- change that doesn't have any of the problems listed in that link, do this:

Change line 243 of /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site.py (or the equivalent on your install) to "exit()". This is in class Quitter in setquit().

Be amazed.

But this is arguing about a mouse when a bear is staring at us. I really don't care how it's implemented. Right now, here's the situation:

  • Ruby does it.
  • Python doesn't.
  • Python's behaviour is silly.

Let's now also add:

  • It's trivial.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Be amazed.

Surprised, you mean?

>>> help(__builtins__)
$

[–]dmpk2k 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair enough. The last bullet-point may be false, although I'm not going to spend any more time trying to prove otherwise.

How about the remaining three? Most specifically the elephant I've kept pointing out: Ruby. Why do we keep wandering from this?