[Python-Dev] conditional expressions? (original) (raw)

Peter Funk pf@artcom-gmbh.de
Tue, 16 Oct 2001 09:06:41 +0200 (CEST)

Hi,

I'm -1 on the concept of conditional expressions. And I don't give a damn whether they are spelled x?y:z or (if x then y else z).

Let me explain why:

IMO the motivation of people asking for conditional expressions is, that they want to write down complex constructs without having to name these properly. Otherwise it is easy to put the code into a function or method and call this instead. In most cases this will improve the readability of the code considerable, since people are alreaday trained to choose proper identifiers instead of X, Y, Z.

Conditional expressions will be abused as an obfuscation device in the same way as lambdas have been used before. They will make it far too easy to write obfuscated (perlish?) Python code even inadvertent.

Regards, Peter

Peter Funk, Oldenburger Str.86, D-27777 Ganderkesee, Germany, Fax:+49 4222950260 office: +49 421 20419-0 (ArtCom GmbH, Grazer Str.8, D-28359 Bremen, Germany)