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PEP 308: A PEP Writer's Experience

holger krekel pyth at devel.trillke.net
Mon Feb 10 18:53:24 EST 2003 
David Eppstein wrote:
> In article <mailman.1044904883.10775.python-list at python.org>,
>  holger krekel <pyth at devel.trillke.net> wrote:
> 
> > People using the ternary-op may easily fail to realize
> > that the idiom isn't the right one all the time.  For example,
> > it might prevent people from learning about the specific pythonic
> > behaviour of and/or returning the "short-circuiting" object. 
> > Subsequently 
> > 
> >     result = hasattr(obj, 'method') and obj.method() 
> > 
> > is not obvious to them but 
> >     
> >     result = obj.method() if hasatttr(obj, 'method') else None
> > 
> > is
> 
> I fail to see why forcing people to avoid an idiom that's obvious to 
> them (because it's not the "right" one) is a benefit to their 
> productivity or the readability of their code.

because it easily leads to

    if obj.method() if hasattr(obj, 'method') else None:

which you have a harder time to justify as nice, not?

    holger
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