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[Python-3000] Pre-PEP: Simple input built-in in Python 3000

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Sat Dec 23 16:46:18 CET 2006 
On 12/23/06, Fredrik Lundh <fredrik at pythonware.com> wrote:
> Guido van Rossum wrote:
>
> > But they typically aren't used to entering EOF either; EOF is not
> > exactly a typical input in an interactive program, and having to enter
> > it typically means you're talking to a Unix utility that's not really
> > designed for interactive use.
>
> the progression I had in mind was
>
>     1. literals, simple operations, printing the result
>     2. reading input from the console, simple operations, printing
>        the result
>     3. reading input from a file, simple operations, printing the
>        result
>
> the jump between 2 and 3 is a bit too large in today's Python.
>
> another way to address that would be to add standard input and output
> *objects* (which delegates to sys.stdin/stdout) to the builtin name-
> space; after all:
>
>     input.readline()
>
> is pretty self-documenting, even if you don't really understand dotted
> notation just yet.

I don't see a strong connection between reading from interactive input
and reading from a file. Reading from input interactively is more
similar to accepting user input from a GUI than reading data from a
file. One of the first interactive sessions in a beginner's program is
the guess-a-number game ("Is it larger than 10?" etc.). This just
doesn't have an analogy with reading files.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
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