hi all, I'm currently experimenting with zope and noodling with python....can anyone give me an answer on these? Python is beautiful (nearly as beautiful as Prograph (but that's another story)). I'm a BIG fan of human readable code, I loved HyperCard and pathelogically refused to get my head past Perl. But there a few irritants that I really need to know why they're there. 1. ":" This smacks of geek...surely the interpreter could figure out if this wasn't there...couldn't it? Surely there's a workaround for someone like me. Isn't there? What if I "promised" never to write one-line functions, could I do without it then? 2."elif" Boy this is awkward, I though "elseif" was bad but "elif" !! Can I use/implement alternatives "elseif" would be a start "else if" would be better...more natural. I love the fact that with Python it's OK (nay encouraged) to document code. I can live with the "__whatever__" methods but ":" and "elif" are so ugly that as I'm showing someone how cool Python is, I get embarrased...and make excuses....along the lines of...."yes, yes, I know, but look how easy it is to create a subclass of Animal..." cheers tom