[Python-Dev] Re: PEP 292 - Simpler String Substitutions

[Clark C. Evans]

+1 to automatic str() -- this is a common newbie mistake and I can't
think of a case where you wouldn't want this to happen

On Mon, Aug 23, 2004 at 08:54:46AM -0700, Michael Chermside wrote:
| Fran?ois Pinard writes:
| > [quotations from the PEP motivation] let me think that people will often
| > forget to stringify numbers and various other value types,
| 
| I agree. I'd like to raise a small voice in favor of automatically
| calling str() on all arguments before interpolation. I'd rather
| type this:
| 
|     # ... code ...
|     out.write( template("$foo\t$bar\t$baz\n") % locals() )
| 
| than this:
| 
|     # ... code ...
|     out.write( template("$foo\t$bar\t$baz\n") %
|         {'foo': str(foo), 'bar': str(bar), 'baz': str(baz)} )