'None' is not displayed as I expected in Python interactive mode

Question

I thought the display in Python interactive mode was always equivalent to print(repr()), but this is not so for None. Is this a language feature or

Answer 1

None represents the absence of a value, but that absence can be observed. Because it represents something in Python, its __repr__ cannot possibly return nothing; None is not nothing.

The outcome is deliberate. If for example a function returns None (similar to having no return statement), the return value of a call to such function does not get shown in the console, so for example print(None) does not print None twice, as the function print equally returns None.

On a side note, print(repr()) will raise a TypeError in Python.