If you want format strings with sensible placeholders, you end up with something like "Hello {person}, it's a {weather} day".format(person=person, weather=

If you want format strings with sensible placeholders, you end up with something like "Hello {person}, it's a {weather} day".format(person=person, weather=weather) The list of variables (person, weather) shows up three times. Somewhat off-topic, a similar problem shows up when you have a bunch of related functions, all taking a particular kwarg (or kwargs), and calling each other. Like def foo(arg, conf1=None, conf2=None): bar(arg+2, conf1=conf1, conf2=conf2) # eww :( def bar(arg, conf1=None, conf2=None): # etc. A neat thing that perl6 has is syntax for "keyword argument whose value is found in the variable of the same name". So the equivalent of that line could be written bar($arg+2, :conf1($conf1), :conf2($conf2)) but it could also be bar($arg+2, :$conf1, :$conf2)