[Python-Dev] vox populii illiterati (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Mon, 10 Feb 2003 07:49:07 -0500

don't worry the pro-camp seems converging toward:

if if hasattr(obj,'method'): obj.method() else: False: or if (if hasattr(obj,'method'): obj.method() else: False):

If that's really the case, I'll gladly rewrite the PEP to use that; it's not too bad, has no new keywords, and the out-of-order evaluation of the current proposal is beginning to bother me more and more.

Still, I'm beginning to be more and more against any form of if-then-else; I'm not yet sure why that is, but I think that I don't see enough places where it's needed, and I find code using it often harder to read. Part of that is my general problem with decyphering expressions with control flow -- my brain is wired to deal with control flow at the statement level very efficiently, but not at the expression level.

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