Hi all, this is my first post to python-dev.
I see this a lot in replies to newbies on c.l.py: The newbie has used
'open' or 'list' as a variable name, and is warned not to do that
because it shadows the builtin by the same name.
But dir(__builtins__) tells me that it's unrealistic to expect
pythoneers to avoid shadowing the builtins; there are simply too many
builtins with names that are lowercase dictionary words.
I could find plenty of examples from my own code, or from the standard
library, e.g. in code.py:
list = traceback.format_exception_only(type, value)
Now scoping means that this still works, but error reporting is
affected. By Murphy's law, someone is at sometime going to
accidentally call a builtin when a user-defined variable was intended.
weekdays = list()
def list():
"""lists weekdays"""
return ['Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'worn out already, see ya next week']
To aid in error reporting I think builtins should, all else equal, be
strict about their arguments -- the fewer valid argument combinations,
the better the chance that a mistaken use is flagged right away.
int(), str() and list() I don't understand -- lambda:0, lambda:'' and
lambda:[] communicate intent better than int, str and list.
- Anders
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