On 7/1/2012 4:54, Alister wrote: > On Sat, 30 Jun 2012 23:45:25 -0500, Evan Driscoll wrote: >> If I had seen that in a program, I'd have assumed it was a bug. > > You would? > I have only been using python for 6 - 12 months but in my past I > programmed microcontrollers in assembly. > > as soon as i saw it i understood it & thought great, like a light bulb > going on.
It's not a matter of "I wouldn't have understood what the author was trying to do" (with a small caveat), it's a matter of "I'd have assumed that the author didn't understand the language semantics." I'm pretty sure it goes contrary to *every other programming language I've ever used* (and a couple that I haven't). I understand why Python does it, and it certainly is nice in that it matches typical mathematical notation, but the surprise quotient is *very* high in the PL world IMO. Evan -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list