[Python-Dev] RE: PEP 285: Adding a bool type (original) (raw)

Patrick K. O'Brien pobrien@orbtech.com
Sat, 30 Mar 2002 08:13:26 -0600

[Tim Peters]

[Christian Tanzer] > ... > How will bool influence 'nonzero'? Currently, Python insists that > 'nonzero should return an int'. Will this be changed to 'should > return a bool'? I hope so. > As that would break existing code, I hope not. No, "should" != "must". Guido won't call code that returns an int here broken, although he might call it deprecated, and leave you wondering when the hammer will drop .

What is the likelihood that nonzero could be renamed (at some point in the future) to something a bit more intuitive, like bool? I know there would be a lot of user code to change, but assuming one day the hammer will drop and everyone's nonzero will have to change to return a bool, I wouldn't mind seeing the method renamed as well. Or is this a lost cause at this point?

Patrick K. O'Brien Orbtech