That's fair - * args and * * kwargs does feel like a hack, although denoting "zero or more" as * has a bit of tradition. I'd have to disagree with list/dict com

That's fair - * args and * * kwargs does feel like a hack, although denoting "zero or more" as * has a bit of tradition. I'd have to disagree with list/dict comprehension, pretty natural considering e.g Javascript/JSON also use [] / {} for each, respectively (Obviously completely subjective). I also get that there's only so many symbols to pick from. Would have been cool if it was *, which is already used for arguments. I think my larger point is that even the small decisions when making a language matter. There isn't really right/wrong or better/worse, but IMO Python operators feel more cohesive/uniform than Ruby or Perl. Also, describing how operator usage feels is hard. Edit: Asterisks causing italics.