Same energy as “Option
-hnot recognized; use--helpfor the list of options”.I can actually forgive that one since it’s the fallback for any invalid argument.
Not always, way too often you just get a variation of “invalid option, use --help to get a list of options”
How about you show me by default like most apps?
They meant that you’d get the same message no matter what unrecognized option you use. So it’s not like they added a specific check that if you type in -h they will give you the message, but instead you get the same message for any unrecognized option.
The thing in the OP only occurs if you type exit, so they specifically added that message to be shown when the interpreter clearly knows what you want, but you just didn’t say it exactly right.
I mean, if I didn’t use a correct flag, my next command will probably include -h / --help
You aren’t wrong, it wouldn’t be bad for it to just print the help in that case, at least when running interactive.
For automation, printing the full help of a more complex command would completely trash logs.
That just gave me the idea that it would be fun to inspect
exita little.Which led me down this path:
>>> repr(exit) 'Use exit() or Ctrl-Z plus Return to exit' >>> dir(exit) [(...), 'eof', 'name'] >>> exit.eof, exit.name ('Ctrl-Z plus Return', 'exit')Okay, cool, the “Use exit() etc.” blurb appears because it’s the function’s
repr, and the string is assembled from itsnameandeofproperties.Now let’s try to make our own:
>>> exit.__class__ <class '_sitebuiltins.Quitter'> >>> gtfo = exit.__class__() TypeError: Quitter.__init__() missing 2 required positional arguments: 'name' and 'eof'Oh Python, you shouldn’t have.
>>> gtfo = exit.__class__("a big puff of smoke", "a sneaky skedaddle") >>> gtfo Use a big puff of smoke() or a sneaky skedaddle to exitBeauty!
Obviously they need to make
exit’s repr method raise aSystemExitDoes gtfo() then work as expected?
It never occurred me to inspect this, nice find.
The dev thought “I know exactly what you meant, but I still insist you to do it my way”.
The era of pedantry is finally over:
Direct support for REPL-specific commands like help, exit, and quit, without the need to call them as functions.
FINALLY! This has always annoyed me. If you’re gonna go through all the trouble of identifying that I want to exit, just DO it.
It’s not really much extra effort though
They just added so e text to the
__repr__method on theexitcallable objectThat’s much easier than figuring out if your running this interactively and trying to figure out if this is going to break stuff.
Lemme golf that
~ $ python Python 3.12.10 (main, Apr 9 2025, 18:13:11) [Clang 18.0.3 (https://android.googlesource.com/toolchain/llvm-project d8003a456 on linux Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> class x: ... def __repr__(s): ... exit(0) ... >>> xit = x() >>> xit ~ $Not that hard
repr is generally assumed to be side effect free and cheap to run, so things like debuggers tend to show repr of things in scope, including possibly
exitalso then it behaves differently between repl and script, since repr never gets run. to do it properly it has to be a new repl keyword I imagine, but I still don’t know if I’m sold on the idea
Good points. You’re right, it does need solved at the shell level. Glad they did so.
I have a vivid memory when I was in first grade and asked my teacher if I can use the bathroom, and I got his bullshit response. I was a first grader, so I sat my ass back down and held it. Fuck this horse shit mentality.
Fine, if you’re an adult, it’s juvenile, but at that point people should understand the difference. Doesn’t mean I won’t lambast a MFer for being a pedantic prick though.
As an adult I’m asking nobody if I “may” use the bathroom. I might ask, “can I use YOUR bathroom” (notably not “may”) or say “can you point me to the bathroom” because I am a human being with a right to access these facilities (Americans need not apply).
Teachers who feel the need to get one over on a child are pieces of shit. It teaches nobody anything except “adults are awful”. Be nice to kids, you can fuck them up with something you don’t think twice about.
What other lessons did you refuse to learn in school?
Too many to count, but I learned this lesson. I just struggled with nuance in gramer as a fucking 1st grader.
May I exit
People seriously don’t use ^D to exit REPLs and shells? So much faster.
