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I like python although I don't use it too often. Would it be unfairly critical of me to say that this is the outcome of a bad design choice? Ideally languages s

I like python although I don't use it too often. Would it be unfairly critical of me to say that this is the outcome of a bad design choice? Ideally languages should be designed in a way that a bug like this which is so widespread and easy to create, should be caught via some mechanism, either linting or some part of the process.

polio 4y ago
Most developers will require an arsenal of static analysis tools to achieve maximum productivity. Linters are an example of such a tool, but they don't exist as part of the language spec itself, AFAIK.
noobermin 4y ago
The f-strings are a recent (may be not so recent now) addition to the language, so all the errors stem from it being "new" where people's reflexes / carefulness hasn't adjusted to them yet. I think in addition to the suggestion for linters, updating IDE/editors to incorporate them would help. Syntax highlighting is the primary reason not terminating strings isn't that common of an error anymore, coloring it differently than a normal string might help (or may be it would make things ugly, I don't know).
nomel 4y ago
To play devils advocate, that's a matter of perspective. There's nothing special about "{text}". It's just characters. One could claim that the default analysis should be "that's fine", with the option to make it special available with the "f". ;) But, perhaps you're right, and the total number of bugs would be reduced with f-strings, but that would require making them default back in python 1.0. The linter I use has warnings for things-that-look-like-f-strings on by default. But, some of my projects have f-string like text, so special text to tell the linter to ignore them are required all over the place.
Too 4y ago
Compare to Typescript having a very small but significant difference. They use backticks instead of an f-prefix. I think this minor difference eliminates all confusion of whether concatenating f strings and normal strings propagate. Same when you split an existing f-string in two because it became too long, there is no risk to forget a backtick on the second pet, in the same way you would with f-prefix, because if you do the closing tick doesn’t match the opening. Linting the existing f-strings is, as shown by this bot, unfortunately very difficult.

polio 4y ago

Most developers will require an arsenal of static analysis tools to achieve maximum productivity. Linters are an example of such a tool, but they don't exist as part of the language spec itself, AFAIK.

noobermin 4y ago

The f-strings are a recent (may be not so recent now) addition to the language, so all the errors stem from it being "new" where people's reflexes / carefulness hasn't adjusted to them yet. I think in addition to the suggestion for linters, updating IDE/editors to incorporate them would help. Syntax highlighting is the primary reason not terminating strings isn't that common of an error anymore, coloring it differently than a normal string might help (or may be it would make things ugly, I don't know).

nomel 4y ago

To play devils advocate, that's a matter of perspective. There's nothing special about "{text}". It's just characters. One could claim that the default analysis should be "that's fine", with the option to make it special available with the "f". ;) But, perhaps you're right, and the total number of bugs would be reduced with f-strings, but that would require making them default back in python 1.0. The linter I use has warnings for things-that-look-like-f-strings on by default. But, some of my projects have f-string like text, so special text to tell the linter to ignore them are required all over the place.

Too 4y ago

Compare to Typescript having a very small but significant difference. They use backticks instead of an f-prefix. I think this minor difference eliminates all confusion of whether concatenating f strings and normal strings propagate. Same when you split an existing f-string in two because it became too long, there is no risk to forget a backtick on the second pet, in the same way you would with f-prefix, because if you do the closing tick doesn’t match the opening. Linting the existing f-strings is, as shown by this bot, unfortunately very difficult.