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[Python-Dev] transitioning from % to {} formatting

Steven Bethard steven.bethard at gmail.com
Fri Oct 2 23:59:25 CEST 2009 
On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 11:56 AM, Raymond Hettinger <python at rcn.com> wrote:
> [Steven Bethard]
>> Just saying "ok, switch your format strings
>> from % to {}" didn't work in Python 3.0 for various good reasons, and
>> I can't imagine it will work in Python 4.0 unless we have a transition
>> plan.
>
> Do the users get any say in this?
> I imagine that some people are heavily invested in %-formatting.
>
> Because there has been limited uptake on {}-formatting (afaict),
> we still have limited experience with knowing that it is actually
> better, less error-prone, easier to learn/rember, etc.   Outside
> a handful of people on this list, I have yet to see anyone adopt
> it as the preferred syntax.

Sure, I guess this is a possibility too, and it could make the
transition process I have to work through for argparse much easier.
;-)

To be clear, are you suggesting that APIs that currently support only
%-formatting shouldn't bother supporting {}-formatting at all? Or are
you suggesting that they should support both, but support for
%-formatting should never go away?

Steve
-- 
Where did you get that preposterous hypothesis?
Did Steve tell you that?
        --- The Hiphopopotamus
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