[Python-Dev] Examples for PEP 572 (original) (raw)

Antoine Pitrou solipsis at pitrou.net
Wed Jul 4 10:41:18 EDT 2018

On Wed, 4 Jul 2018 09:43:04 -0300 Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:

I think this is a very key point that the "this is bad" crowd is overlooking. Even if this syntax turns out to not be that useful, abusing the walrus operator can be fixed with a comment of "hard to follow; please simplify" without teaching any new concepts or idioms

The same could be said of any language mis-feature. Do we want to claim that questionable semantics in Javascript and PHP are not a problem, because the bad constructs can simply be turned away in code review?

That sounds like a modern re-phrasing of the old argument, """C is not dangerous in itself, it's only the fault of incompetent programmers""". Just replace "incompetent programmers" with "complacent reviewers"...

Another point is we live in a dictatorship by choice, and yet some people seem very upset our dictator dictated in the end.

Not sure what you mean with "by choice". When I arrived here, I certainly wasn't asked whether I wanted the place to be a dictatorship or not ;-) Granted, I did choose to come here, but not because of a personal appeal for dictatorship.

One could claim that the qualities of Python are due to it being a dictatorship. I think it's impossible to answer that question rigorously, and all we're left with is our personal feelings and biases on the subject.

Regards

Antoine.

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