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To: python-list@python.org
From: Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: question about input() and/or raw_input()
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 12:12:39 -0500
Organization: IISS Elusive Unicorn
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On Sun, 19 Jan 2014 16:14:48 +0000 (UTC), Grant Edwards
<invalid@invalid.invalid> declaimed the following:

>On 2014-01-18, Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> wrote:
>> On 1/18/2014 1:30 PM, Roy Smith wrote:
>>> Pardon me for being cynical, but in the entire history of the universe,
>>> has anybody ever used input()/raw_input() for anything other than a
>>> homework problem?
>>
>> Homework problems (and 'toy' programs, such as hangman), whether in a 
>> programming class or elsewhere, are one of the intended use cases of 
>> Python. How else would you get interactive input without the complexity 
>> of a gui?
>
>sys.stdin.readline()

	At which point a simple:

nm = raw_input("Enter your name: ")
print "Hello, ", nm

turns into (to duplicate the behavior WRT line endings, and to minimize the
new features the student is exposed to)

import sys

sys.stdout.write("Enter your name: ")
nm = sys.stdin.readline()
nm.strip()
sys.stdout.write("Hello, ")
sys.stdout.write(nm)
sys.stdout.write("\n")
sys.stdout.flush()

	Yes, a non-beginner would have been exposed to formatting operations
and been able to condense the three .write() calls into one... But the
assignment has gone from "learn how to do simple input and output" into
"learn about importable modules, learn how to handle line endings, and
maybe figure out simple I/O in all of that"

	If that was the only route I'd rapidly end up creating a utility module
with, to start with, a simple <?>

import sys

def input(prompt=None):
	if prompt:
		sys.stdout.write(prompt)
	return sys.stdin.readline().strip()


	I rarely find a need to work at the sys.std*** level. Anything needing
that level of control is probably using a data file specified on the
command line and not interactive console...
-- 
	Wulfraed                 Dennis Lee Bieber         AF6VN
    wlfraed@ix.netcom.com    HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/