**Positional-only arguments** are a feature in Python 3.8 used for specifying positional only parameters with the '/' marker in function definitions.

# Why were positional-only arguments introduced?

**Keyword-only arguments** 
 are another attribute of Python functions that have been available since Python 3.0. These arguments are specified using the '*' marker. They prompt the user to state the keyword used in the already defined function when making a call to the same function. Therefore, the introduction of *positional-only arguments* improves the flexibility of the language in the following ways:

* Adds the ability to rename parameters which, in the case of keyword-only arguments, would be a breaking change.

* Forces users to call functions by specifying arguments by their position only. Here, the name of the argument provides no intrinsic value (such functions include `min()` and `max()` among others).

# How to use positional-only arguments

The '/' marker needs to be added *after* all those arguments to be specified as positional-only in the function definition. The generic form of a function consisting of positional-only, keyword-only, and either of the previous two would look like:

def equation(x , y , / , z):
    return x * y + z
#The arguments to the left of '/' (in this case x and y) can only be passed postionally whereas the argument to the right of '/' can be passed positionally or with a keyword 

print(equation(2 , 3 , 5)) #all three arguments are positional 
print(equation(2 , 3 , z = 5)) #the first two arguments are positional while the third is a keyword argument

## Guidelines for when to use positional-only arguments

* When the arguments of a function have no explicit meaning, there is no need to specify a name.

* When there are only a few arguments that will always be passed in the same order.

What are positional-only arguments in Python?

Positional-only arguments in Python 3.8 improve flexibility by using the ‘/’ marker, allowing renaming without breaking changes and enforcing positional calls.

What are positional-only arguments in Python?

Why were positional-only arguments introduced?

How to use positional-only arguments

Code

Guidelines for when to use positional-only arguments