This issue tracker has been migrated to GitHub, and is currently read-only.
For more information, see the GitHub FAQs in the Python's Developer Guide.

Author larry
Recipients Yury.Selivanov, brett.cannon, georg.brandl, jkloth, larry, pitrou, serhiy.storchaka, taleinat, vajrasky, zach.ware
Date 2014-01-23.23:55:14
SpamBayes Score -1.0
Marked as misclassified Yes
Message-id <1390521316.84.0.225328534565.issue20341@psf.upfronthosting.co.za>
In-reply-to
Content
I don't think it's fair to call my responses "snarky".  On the other hand, your suggestion that I view Argument Clinic as "my toy project" is obviously meant as an insult.

It is fair to call my responses "dismissive", because I find nothing compelling about your arguments.

I would color your final sentence slightly.  Yes, there are plenty of legitimate discussions about API semantics and nomenclature.  But there are infinitely many pointless and time-wasting discussions.  Therefore not every question about API and naming decisions is de facto legitimate.

I don't mean to say that your bringing it up originally was unreasonable, that was entirely appropriate.  But surely I've made it clear by now: I find no strength to your arguments, and I'm not changing the name based on them.  At this point all you're accomplishing is making me angry.

The name "nullable" has been in continuous in Argument Clinic since very early on.  It has always been in the PEP, and was in the original prototype published Dec 3 2012.  Nobody has said anything about it, until you, just now, on this issue.  I suggest the reason nobody has said anything before is because the name is fine.


A clarification over something you said previously: you suggested that the name would "confuse Python developers".  Just to be crystal clear: the name is not exposed to Python *users*.  Right now it's solely visible to CPython core developers.  If at some point Argument Clinic is  deemed a public tool, it would also be visible to people writing third-party extension modules.  I am not proposing we use the term "nullable" in user-facing documentation or APIs.  (I happen to think it would be fine for users too, but there's utterly no point in having that debate now.)  For what it's worth, I like to think CPython core developers are not so easily confused as you suggest.

Also: Python draws inspiration from lots of places.  The syntax for decorators was borrowed from Java autodoc comments (and Java annotations, though I think it actually slightly predates those).  I'm not aware of any existing Python precedent we can draw on, so drawing inspiration from C# and SQL strikes me as perfectly appropriate.  On the other hand, I see no precedent bolstering your suggestion.

You yourself told someone in IRC, when they were pestering me about some Argument Clinic bikeshedding, "let's leave Larry alone".  I appreciated it at the time.  I'd appreciate it if you'd follow that advice now too.
History
Date User Action Args
2014-01-23 23:55:17larrysetrecipients: + larry, brett.cannon, georg.brandl, pitrou, taleinat, jkloth, Yury.Selivanov, zach.ware, serhiy.storchaka, vajrasky
2014-01-23 23:55:16larrysetmessageid: <1390521316.84.0.225328534565.issue20341@psf.upfronthosting.co.za>
2014-01-23 23:55:16larrylinkissue20341 messages
2014-01-23 23:55:14larrycreate