how would you feel if ...

[Skaperen]

how would you feel if Python's assignment operator was := instead of just = ?

[snippsat]

how would you feel if Python's assignment operator was := instead of just = ?

Would have been incredibly silly change now as it has been = since the start.
As := was free added in Python 3.8(🐳rus operator)

>>> print(num = 99)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'num' is an invalid keyword argument for print()

# Walrus power
>>> print(num := 99)
99

Saves us from calling len() twice.

lst = [1, 2, 3, 4]
if (n := len(lst)) > 3:
    print(f"List is too long <{n} elements,need to be <= 3>")

Output:
List is too long <4 elements,need to be <= 3>

[Skaperen]

i'm not asking in terms of a change, but rather, what if it had been that way since the beginning (e.g. would be silly to change it to =, now).

[DeaD_EyE]

how would you feel if Python's assignment operator was := instead of just = ?

I won't feel any change, because of some relativistic effects during time travel.

I use from the IEC 61131-3 standard the Structured Text. The syntax is similar to Pascal, and it's not vendor-specific.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structured_text
The:= is used for assignment. A plain colon is followed by a datatype and comparison is made with =.

I don't have bad feelings to write := and if Python had this instead of =, I think we won't recognize it or talk much about it.

Changing this decision afterwards without breaking all existing code is nearly impossible.

[Skaperen]

of course any change like that after it is established is, at best, a new language; entirely unsuitable for the previous.

but being one that dislikes typing := when i would need to type it a lot, i can say that the me in that universe where Python was created with := would likely not be coding in Python. i'm not sure what i would be using. maybe still doing Pike. but it seems to have stalled out, at least in this universe. in both cases there is still a little C.

[Gribouillis]

I probably saved millions of times typing : with Python using = instead of :=! My main regret is that python uses . instead of just a space character. Using a space makes typing code much more fluid.

[Skaperen]

typing : involves hold Shift on qwerty keyboards. that is the big reason i dislike typing := many times.

[ndc85430]

Can't say it bothers me, having used it in Go and XQuery.

[Skaperen]

> Can't say it bothers me, having used it in Go and XQuery

i don't even know what those are? are they terminal emulators?

[ndc85430]

No, they're programming languages: https://golang.org/ and e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/XQuery.