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[Python-Dev] Python Language Reference has no mention of list comÃprehensions

Stephen J. Turnbull stephen at xemacs.org
Thu Dec 3 12:31:05 EST 2015 
Laura Creighton writes:

 > Am I missing something important about the 'display' language?

A display is a constructor that looks like a literal but isn't.  It is
syntactically like the printed output, but may contain expressions to
be evaluated at runtime as well as compile-time constant expressions
that can be "folded".  I find it useful to have a single word that
means that, and can't think of a better one.  I suppose "display" was
chosen because the syntax is intended to "look like" the constructed
object (ie, its printable representation).  A comprehension
corresponds to what is often called "set-builder notation" for sets;
it doesn't look like the print representation.  I'd be perfectly happy
to include comprehensions in the concept of display, but Guido says
no, and I'm happy to have them be different too. :-)

I don't know if you missed any of that, I don't claim that it's
terribly important, and Your Mileage May Vary, but it works for me. :-)

BTW, I don't care if usage is consistent in this case.  I like
consistency, but insisting on it here would be an Emersonian hobgoblin
IMO (again, YMMV).
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