Lambdas are a Python language feature we should provide clear guidance on. Used well they simplify code and are perfectly readable; used poorly, and code becames opaque and bug-prone. Although use should be restrained, an accommodation should be made for Pandas and sorting, albeit with caveats to ensure usage doesn't compromise readability. And a => syntax could be nice.

The Walrus operator risks encouraging buggy code by conflating assignment with evaluation. PHP stands as a warning as to where this can lead. There are few cases where the convenience of the Walrus operator outweigh its risks and even these are not clear-cut. From a When of Python view, the Walrus operator should be in Deprecated Python, or possibly Situational Python but with very few situations accepted. The Walrus will only very occasionally belong in production code.

The Walrus operator finally seemed to have found a practical use case - as a way to make collections of strings or integers without as much boiler plate as the alternative without the operator. But Python has a better approach already - Enum - and in Python 3.11 it is even easier to use with strings (StrEnum). So the Walrus operator still struggles to find a problem for which it is the best solution.

How we handle type hinting will define the future of Python for good or bad. Type hinting is useful as glorified commenting and as such should be part of everyone's Everyday Python. It should be part of Common Python. Type hinting is likely to be widely used in the code people encounter so we all need to be comfortable reading simple type hinting. Some enterprise and library codebases will benefit from a more strict and enforced form of type "hinting" and further advances in type hinting and checkers like mypy will improve the developer experience of using this feature. What has your experience of type hinting been? Do you agree with this post? Do you disagree? Please comment below.

The for else construct is arguably too confusing for most Python coders and there are simple alternatives that are safe and versatile. A clear candidate for deprecation.

Python pickle is something many of us have had a love-hate relationship with. We've loved it before using it and hated it afterwards ;-) Maybe we should put pickle in the Deprecate Python category?

The When of Python is at heart a community project. We need people to share their opinions on different Python language features. If you have opinions on any language features we'd love to hear from you.

Experience with the X-Wing Miniatures Game provides a lesson for the Python community. We need to find a way to strip things back so it is easier (again) for beginners to learn the language.

Python is used by very different groups of people and how we decide which features are Common Python and which are Situational Python must take that into account. If something is common to one group only e.g. data scientists, or enterpise web application developers, it should be considered Situational Python - even if the use case is very common for that group.

Python prides itself on having one obvious way to do things but it is more of an ideal than a reality sometimes. But we should still aim in that direction.