[Python-Dev] Half-baked proposal: * (and **?) in assignments (original) (raw)

Brett Cannon bac@OCF.Berkeley.EDU
Sat, 23 Nov 2002 17:09:09 -0800 (PST)

[Delaney, Timothy]

> From: Brett Cannon [mailto:bac@OCF.Berkeley.EDU] > [Delaney, Timothy]

In particular, I tend to produce a lot of filtering functions (whether run through list comps, filter or just standalone) and this is one place where this syntax would be useful. Of course, that presupposes that at least one value passes the filter ... but surely a failure there would be a data error ;)

But is it that big of a deal to just take the [1:] index of something instead of using this suggested addition?

And yes, it is always a data error. =)

> concise code and I want to keep the LHS of the assignment simple. But > then again that might be a bias coming from a right-handed person. =)

Nah - I'm right-handed too, but I've got nothing against the LHS.

Damn. Would have been nice if that argument held up.

The major point I have against it is that you would presumably have duplication in:

a = t *a = t unless that were special-cased. I personally think it should be syntactially correct if the proposal were to be accepted, but with a strong suggestion in the documentation that it be avoided ;)

Yes, it should be correct if the change is accepted. But what are the chances that people will actually read the note advising against it? =)

-Brett