"Ruby does it this way and people like it" isn't an argument that will work. You can accomplish the same things in Python with an extra line of overhead.
If you want to get this past python-dev you'll need to explain the benefits, here's a start:
1) Lower cognitive load: Users can understand blocks but the extra naming/reference is one too many things for their brain stack to handle.
2) More descriptive: with blocks the first line says "I'm about to define a function for use with X" instead of the existing way which says "I'm defining a function. Now I'm using that function with X."
3) Show me: take a chunk of an existing project (stdlib is best) and rewrite it with the proposed block syntax. You get to cherry pick the example so if the new version doesn't read much cleaner than the old version maybe the idea isn't so hot.
I'm -1 on the idea but if you want to change my mind you have to make an argument that doesn't start with "In Ruby..."
If you want to get this past python-dev you'll need to explain the benefits, here's a start:
1) Lower cognitive load: Users can understand blocks but the extra naming/reference is one too many things for their brain stack to handle.
2) More descriptive: with blocks the first line says "I'm about to define a function for use with X" instead of the existing way which says "I'm defining a function. Now I'm using that function with X."
3) Show me: take a chunk of an existing project (stdlib is best) and rewrite it with the proposed block syntax. You get to cherry pick the example so if the new version doesn't read much cleaner than the old version maybe the idea isn't so hot.
I'm -1 on the idea but if you want to change my mind you have to make an argument that doesn't start with "In Ruby..."