[Python-Dev] Trinary Operators (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Fri, 07 Feb 2003 09:41:49 -0500

Yes! My only experience with Algol 68 was in an undergrad programming language survey course about 10 years ago, and I remember thinking at the time that they really got it right back in '68.

ABC was designed by some folks who also worked on Algol 68. I assure you that some of the differences between Algol 68 and ABC came from bitter experience with the former.

I also have a dim recollection of pestering Guido about the statement/expression divide once, and he insisted that it was a feature. I respectfully disagree; I think we're all grown-ups here and we can decide between ourselves when an expression is really a statement. This is one thing that I think C got right (although "if (x = ...)" is an abomination that should, at the very least, generate a stern warning).

Huh? Apart from the one thing you frown upon here, Python's distinction between statements and expressions is pretty much the same as that in C!

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)