The "only one way to do things" is quite low in the Zen of python. It is preceded by for instance "Beautiful is beter than ugly", "Readability counts" and "prac

The "only one way to do things" is quite low in the Zen of python. It is preceded by for instance "Beautiful is beter than ugly", "Readability counts" and "practicality beats purity" [1]. There's always a trade of in these rules. In this case I think the right choice was made to add this easier way of doing string interpolation for cases where it can be used, also "Now is better than never". [1] Python 3.5.2 (default, Nov 7 2016, 11:31:36) [GCC 6.2.1 20160830] on linux Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import this The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters Beautiful is better than ugly. Explicit is better than implicit. Simple is better than complex. Complex is better than complicated. Flat is better than nested. Sparse is better than dense. Readability counts. Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules. Although practicality beats purity. Errors should never pass silently. Unless explicitly silenced. In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess. There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it. Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch. Now is better than never. Although never is often better than *right* now. If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea. If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea. Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those! >>>