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"How the fuck is..." is the wrong wording, at least in idiomatic American English.

"What the fuck" (aka "WTF?") connotes more "this is wrong/surprising" than "could you please tell me the answer?". "WTF?" is often a rhetorical question, but even when it demands a response, the response is a situational explanation, not a mere bit of trivia (such as "trim is called strip").

"What the fuck is trim doing in Python?" is more idiomatic in its use of 'fuck', but would express surprise that Python has a trim() function, as if it were against the spirit of the language. Because your "How the fuck..." sounds a little like that in its use of 'fuck', it gives the wrong impression for what you're trying to achieve. (Clicking your link, I expected a rant, not a idea for a equivalence-lookup service.)

To express curiosity about the right answer -- "what is the equivalent of trim in Python?" -- but with the same sort of irreverence possible via 'swear' words, a more likely wording from a native speaker would be "how the hell do you do trim in Python?"

"How the hell" expresses exasperation but also suggests some genuine interest in a 'right' answer. (You sometimes see "how the fuck do I..." or "how the fuck do you..." also, but anything starting "how the fuck" is far less common than either "how the hell" or "what the fuck".)

In general, using 'fuck' casually can be a problem, for a number of reasons. I believe the primary reason is that it is distracting -- it claims that the containing statement is emotionally important and demands special attention.

Is a simple cross-programming-language lookup facility emotionally important? No.

So some people will act 'offended' at use of a word with other 'naughty/private' connotations, and even some people who like to swear will feel like you've diluted the word's value.

You need to save 'fuck' for really important uses, or it won't have any fucking meaning left at all.




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