[Python-Dev] cpython: Rename contextlib.ignored() to contextlib.ignore(). (original) (raw)

R. David Murray rdmurray at bitdance.com
Fri Oct 11 21:22:34 CEST 2013

On Fri, 11 Oct 2013 20:01:07 +0100, MRAB <python at mrabarnett.plus.com> wrote:

On 11/10/2013 19:41, Glenn Linderman wrote: > On 10/11/2013 10:19 AM, Eric V. Smith wrote: >> On 10/11/2013 12:43 PM, Barry Warsaw wrote: >>> On Oct 11, 2013, at 06:27 PM, Georg Brandl wrote: >>> >>>> Maybe to fit in with other verb-like APIs used as context managers: >>>> it's open() not opened(). >>> open() predates context managers, but maybe we need a new convention. >>> >>> with ignore(FileNotFoundError): >>> >>> vs >>> >>> with ignored(FileNotFoundError): >>> >>> To me anyway, the latter sounds better. >> I'm still -0, and maybe now -1 on the idea, mostly because it encourages >> an anti-pattern. >> >> But, to continue to paint the shed, shouldn't it be "ignoring", to match >> "closing"? > > Seriously, "with" is the wrong spelling for this using. It should be > > while ignorning(FileNotFoundError) > > Insistence on using "with" for the anti-pattern, and proper English, > would require: > > with ignoranceof(FileNotFoundError) > > :) > "Ignorance" means not knowing, but we do know about FileNotFoundError. What we want is to ignore it.

Isn't "ignore" in any form really a lie here, though? We are not ignoring it, we are catching it and taking an early exit out of the with block:

with ignore(FileNotFoundError):
    with open('f') as f:
        print("hello world")
    print("goodbye world")

This does not print anything, whereas for either intuitive meaning I can think of for "ignoring" the error, it ought to print something. You really can't ignore errors inside a with block.

This incorrect intuition is exactly why this is an anti-pattern. 'ignore' is an attractive nuisance.

This having occurred to me, I am now definitely -1.

--David

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