[Python-Dev] Switch statement (original) (raw)

Greg Ewing greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz
Wed Jun 21 02:01:50 CEST 2006

Phillip J. Eby wrote:

Actually, one could consider "case" expressions to be computed at function definition time, the way function defaults are. That would solve the problem of symbolic constants, or indeed any sort of expressions.

That's an excellent idea!

It's just a question of which one is easier to explain.

I think the function-definition-time one is easiest to both explain and also to reason about when writing code, since definition time is well-defined, whereas "the first time it's executed" is somewhat fuzzy.

It's also a lot clearer how it interacts with closures, which is another good point.

I recommend adding this option to the relevant PEP (whichever it is).

-- Greg

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