[Python-Dev] PEP 7 clarification request: braces (original) (raw)

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Mon Jan 2 07:02:59 CET 2012

On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 3:04 PM, Scott Dial <scott+python-dev at scottdial.com> wrote:

On 1/1/2012 11:44 PM, Nick Coghlan wrote:

I think it's a recipe for future maintenance hassles when someone adds a second statement to one of the clauses but doesn't add the braces. (The only time I consider it reasonable to leave out the braces is for one liner if statements, where there's no else clause at all) Could you explain how these two cases differ with regard to maintenance?

Sure: always including K&R style braces for compound statements (even when they aren't technically necessary) means that indentation == control flow, just like Python. Indent your additions correctly, and the reader and compiler will agree on what they mean:

if (cond) { statement; } else { statement; addition; /* Reader and compiler agree this is part of the else clause */ }

if (cond) statement; else statement; addition; /* Uh-oh, should have added braces */

I've been trying to convince Benjamin that there's a reason "always include the braces" is accepted wisdom amongst many veteran C programmers (with some allowing an exception for one-liners), but he isn't believing me, and I'm not going to go through and edit every single one of his commits to add them.

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia

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