Steven D'Aprano wrote: > On Wed, 23 Aug 2006 08:56:54 +0200, Fredrik Lundh wrote: > >> Steven D'Aprano wrote: >> >>> But an upside is that it would enable more useful error messages, at least >>> sometimes. Here's some trivial pseudo-code: >>> >>> def foo(a): >>> assert len(a) > 10, "%s is too short" % a.__name__ >>> >>> y = "hello" >>> foo(y) >>> >>> would display "AssertionError: y is too short". >> why not "a is too short" ? >> >> or for that matter, "x is to short" ? > > These are all valid responses too. But consider that when you get an > exception that says "a is too short", you often have to mentally change > gears and think about where a came from and what it is called in the > enclosing scope. After all, if the value of a is invalid, and the value of > a is set in the enclosing scope, it makes sense to refer to "the object > known locally as a" by the name it was known as when it was set.
That's what tracebacks are for. You don't have to mentally change gears; you just look. -- Robert Kern "I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth." -- Umberto Eco -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
