“I'm basically giving myself a permanent vacation from being BDFL”

Background ("PEP 572 and decision-making in Python"):

https://lwn.net/Articles/757713/

> The problem with the C-style of assignments is that it leads to this classic error: if(x = 0) {...}

yeah, if you code on 20 years old compilers with no warnings. GCC 4.1 warns about this (with -Wall) and Clang 3.4 warns about this too, without any warning flag.

I think that having strong opinions on how others should be developing software is how communities become toxic like this.

"Shooting yourself in the foot is your fault for not using a linter that detects accidental misuse of assignment!"

> I think that having strong opinions on how others should be developing software is how communities become toxic like this.

Depends on what you think the answer to "is programming an art or a science" is. People who build bridges are absolutely subject to "strong opinions" on how to build bridges. I am of the opinion that shipping software to others when under a contract without using all the facilities available to prevent problems - linting, static type checking, etc - should be considered at best a breach of contract and ideally criminal negligence.