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end of print = lower productivity ?

Alan G Isaac aisaac at american.edu
Mon Dec 1 14:12:38 EST 2008 
I actually trust that the developers had good
reasons for this change, but I think it is
silly to argue that it is costless.  The
question is, what is the cost-benefit trade-off?

One obvious cost is that working at the
interpreter prompt is now slightly less
convenient.  Just because the cost is small
does not mean it should not be offset by a
benefit.

I am less sympathetic to the suggestion that
there is an inconvenience when working in
an editor, but clearly some people find one.

My preferred transition would have been to
retain the `print` statement but add a `printf`
function (i.e., the new `print` function).
Presumably many would find this a repulsive
redundancy and a needless maintenance headache.

Alan Isaac
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