Exiting from python shell

[Tobiah]

For years now, I've been exiting the shell by typing 'exit\n',
being chid by the shell, and then typing ^D. I can't
remember a time that I typed the ^D the first time. Call
me an idiot if you must, but since someone took the trouble
to catch the command 'exit' in a special way, would it have
been so awful to just let it be a way to exit when the shell?

Thanks,

Toby

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[Mark Elston]

Re: Exiting from python shell

* James Stroud wrote (on 7/18/2007 4:27 PM):

Tobiah wrote:

>For years now, I've been exiting the shell by typing 'exit\n',
>being chid by the shell, and then typing ^D. I can't
>remember a time that I typed the ^D the first time. Call
>me an idiot if you must, but since someone took the trouble
>to catch the command 'exit' in a special way, would it have
>been so awful to just let it be a way to exit when the shell?
>>
>Thanks,
>>
>Toby
>>

>
Yes, this would have required a ground-up approach to redesigning the
python language, transmuting it to something like a cross between lisp
and COBOL and would have rendered it impossible to author with C because
of the way C implements pointers--hardcoding in assembly would likely be
required. Beyond that, exiting an interpreter is not known in computer
science and has been shown impossible by Goedel himself in a series of
monographs on the topic. Thus, to exit python via a keyword would
require also reformulating mathematics as we know it. Furthermore, such
a change would propagate itself, via the observer effect, to the
behavior of sub atomic particles via ill-defined quantum-mechanical
affects and would likely result in the reversal of the Second Law of
Thermodynamics, wherein your refrigerator would end up heating its
contents and milk would spontaneously spoil, among other anomalies.
>
For these reasons, you might propose a "quit" keyword.
>
James
>

You know, some answers simply *must* be saved for posterity....

Mark