On Mon, 15 Nov 2010 22:40:00 -0700, Ian Kelly wrote: > On 11/15/2010 10:26 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote: >> t = foo()+bar()+baz() if pred(it) else baz()-foo()-bar() >> >> What does "it" mean here? > > "it" would mean the result of the expression foo()+bar()+baz(). What > else could it mean?
It could mean the last expression, baz(). Or the entire compound expression, foo()+bar()+baz(). > There are valid objections to the proposal, but the > intended semantics seem perfectly clear. Fair point, my example was terrible and didn't show the point that was clear in my head. Mea culpa. How about this instead? t = foo()+it if pred(it) else bar() Should that be a SyntaxError, or is `it` a variable that holds its value from statement to statement? t = it t = (foo() if pred(it) else bar()) if cond(it) else baz() For what it's worth, Apple's defunct Hypertalk language had a couple of syntax elements very much like that. Hypertalk had a special variable, "it", which you used like this: get the number of cards put it into field "Card number" I trust I don't have to explain this? :) Hypertalk also had a special function, "the result", which worked something like this: ask "This is a dialog box. Please type your answer here:" put the result into field "Your answer" (or you could use "result()" instead). Both of these worked quite well with Hypertalk, particularly with it's focus on non-programmers, but they were designed into the language from the beginning. In Python they would be the proverbial round peg in a square hole. BTW, I frequently use "it" for iterators, and making "it" a reserved word would break a lot of my code. This would make me quite peeved. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
