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Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 20:54:51 +1100
Subject: Re: Time we switched to unicode? (was Explanation of this Python language feature?)
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 8:43 PM, Antoon Pardon
<antoon.pardon@rece.vub.ac.be> wrote:
> I thought programs were read more than written. So if writing is made
> a bit more problematic but the result is more readable because we are
> able to use symbols that are already familiar from other contexts, I
> would say it is worth it.

It's a matter of extents. If code is read ten times for every time
it's written, making it twenty times harder to write and a little bit
easier to read is still a bad tradeoff.

Also: To what extent IS that symbol familiar from some other context?
Are you using Python as a programming language, or should you perhaps
be using a mathematical front-end? Not everything needs to perfectly
match what anyone from any other context will expect. This is, first
and foremost, a *programming* language.

ChrisA