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Python from Wise Guy's Viewpoint

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Mon Oct 20 13:19:37 EDT 2003 
<mike420 at ziplip.com> wrote in message
> lacks uniformity here (think "print" and "del").

Unlike Lisp, Python write special forms as statements instead of in
function syntax, which means that in Python, everything that looks
like a function call is a function call.  print could almost be a
function, except that print (a,) is different from print (a). even
though as functions they would be the same.  For del, it is necessary
that the 'argument' expression *not* be evaluated.  Let x=1.  Then del
x and del 1 are different (the latter an error), while del(x) and
del(1) would be synonyms.

> You, Pythonista, are like naive little children who have to be

Someone who does not seem to know the difference between functions and
special forms (to use the Lisp/Scheme terminology) should not blab.

Terry J. Reedy
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