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

Christian Tanzer tanzer@swing.co.at
Wed, 03 Apr 2002 09:01:01 +0200

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> Nice tease. But Guido's hammer with regard to future strictification > of bool is exactly what makes me uneasy.

Can you elaborate that? I thought I made it pretty clear I didn't want to strictify bool (though I did open up the question as to whether other people want that). Is that what you call a hammer?

You made it clear enough.

There are two things making me uneasy though:

• A lot of people instantly started complaining about the new bools being not strict enough. Over time, all that clamour might change your POV.

• I don't really understand why you proposed this PEP in the first place.

  For me, Python's (old) way of handling boolean conditions is one of its great strengths. This wasn't always the case. When I started using Python, I was slightly put off by the lack of a boolean data type. But quite quickly I learned to appreciate Python's way of dealing with this issue.

  All of that was implicit knowledge, though. It took Laura Creighton's well written post to make it explicit for me (thank you, Laura).

After reading Alex Martelli's and Laura's arguments, I'm convinced that Python would be better off without this PEP and change to -1.

Glad-that-I'm-not-a-language-designer-ly yr's, Christian

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Christian Tanzer tanzer@swing.co.= at Glasauergasse 32 Tel: +43 1 876 62 = 36 A-1130 Vienna, Austria Fax: +43 1 877 66 = 92

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